by David Stillwagon

Created on: March 01, 2009   Last Updated: March 02, 2009

During the mid to late 70's the United States was in the middle of an energy crisis. Information about energy was needed by the government and businesses. The Energy Information Administration was founded in 1977 by Congress and President Jimmy Carter. The EIA is under the Department of Energy as a fact finding agency that provides such information as current data on energy resources and forecasts of future use of resources by companies and consumers.

The data that the EIA collects is vital to many industries such as the oil, gas, electric, and coal mine industries. The EIA is a completely independent agency that is not influenced by politics. Their purpose is to provide information that can be disseminated by consumers, businesses and other government departments for planning and future development.

For instance, the major oil companies use the weekly publication This Week in Petroleum' to keep up on trends in national use of gas and heating oil. The report goes into detail of the market prices for the various oil prices around the world. With this information companies can make adjustments and forecasts of how much oil to buy and sell and how much to have in inventory.

This Week in Petroleum is also studied by those that deal in the buying and selling of oil as a commodity. Without this information brokers would be at a disadvantage in the commodities market.

The publication Short-Term Energy Outlook' estimates energy usage over the next 18 months with monthly updates. The report starts out with highlights of the past six months of energy usage and then it breaks down the report according to U. S. petroleum, natural gas, electric and coal. Companies that use vast amounts of energy in the production of goods will need this information to be able to forecast the cost of energy to their business. States also study this report to make any adjustment to their spending or to future budgets.

The EIA also provides the International Energy Outlook' each year that provides an assessment of the energy outlook for many coming years. Like the publication This Week in Petroleum' this annual report is vital to any planning of energy use or conservation by countries and regions within those countries. This report deals with not only oil consumption but with coal, electric and nuclear usage also.

There are several other publications that the Energy Information Administration produces that keeps the public and businesses up to date on all things dealing with energy production in its various forms and energy usage.

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