DOGE cuts and code delay bog down important energy report

Elon Musk may have left the Trump administration months ago, but his stench lingers in almost every federal office building. The latest agency to get bogged down in the legacy of the Department of Government Effectiveness is the Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to Bloombergthe ministry missed the timing of the publication of the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, a crucial update closely watched by those in the energy sector.

On paper, the delay may seem minimal. The report, which contains weekly data on the state of the US oil market, was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday but was pushed back to 5 p.m., after markets closed for the day. But delays are very rare for the report, and the EIA was hit hard by DOGE cuts earlier this year. According to Bloomberg, the agency has lost more than 100 of its nearly 350 employees, leaving those that remain extremely understaffed as they try to keep everything running smoothly.

Although the report was released on time, even during the government shutdown, an apparent coding error caused the delay. The report was also already technically late, but that’s not the EIA’s fault. Instead, it was pushed back from its usual Wednesday release and pushed back to Monday thanks to an executive order signed by Donald Trump that declared December 24 and 26 a federal holiday. It joins other once-reliable government reports, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Employment Reportas examples of the federal government losing its status as a reliable source of information.

This delay, problematic as it is, is a good reminder of the extent of the damage done to the underlying infrastructure of the federal government by Trump, Musk, and the so-called Department of Government Effectiveness. The reality is, like The Guardian recently highlightedwe still have no real idea of ​​the extent of the damage.

Taking DOGE at its word – a questionable move, considering how unreliable, its figures turned out to be-the agency saved approximately $214 billion in spending by canceling federal contracts, laying off workers and closing departments. Other estimates brings this amount closer to 16 billion dollars, while a a report from congressional Democrats suggests DOGE actually created $21.7 billion in waste. Regardless, one effect is real and easy to see: government is smaller and works less efficiently.

According to the Trump administrationthe federal government will leave 2025 with 300,000 fewer employees than at the start of the year. This includes the more than 100 people who left the EIA, causing the agency to lose credibility as it struggles to continue operating. A source told Bloomberg that industries are “rolling their eyes at how inefficient and unpredictable data has become on the part of the U.S. government.” This seems like a bad sign.