The newly installed head of the federal government’s energy statistics bureau on Thursday laid out sweeping plans to modernize the agency, eyeing the launch of new industry surveys, AI tools for its staffers and a potential field office in Houston.
The plans laid out by Tristan Abbey, a former White House and Senate staffer confirmed to lead the U.S. Energy Information Administration in September, would overhaul an agency that many energy companies, analysts and researchers depend on for data. The EIA lost about a third of its 350 employees during the Trump administration’s downsizing push earlier this year, leading to concerns that the quality of the information it publishes could suffer.
Abbey, speaking at an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the EIA has grown “insular” over the past decade.
“The emphasis has been on protecting EIA’s analytical independence, which is absolutely important, to the detriment of being relevant, which is not necessary,” Abbey said.
