on variations in economic growth, energy pricing and supply, the EIA also modeled two“ alternative policy” scenarios. These projected impacts from the elimination of Biden-era laws and regulations reducing carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants and boosting adoption of electric vehicles.
According to the contents pages from the draft, which Pro- Publica obtained, the deleted narrative highlighted projections in the reference case showing that increased electricity demand would be met through 2050“ mainly by generation from renewable sources”; that“ coal generation falls to close to zero”; and that there would be“ declines” in domestic consumption of oil and natural gas.
The decision to jettison the report’ s traditional explanatory narrative was announced to EIA staff in a March 10 internal email, after the document was largely complete following months of work.“ After conferring with the [ EIA ] front office, we are shifting gears on the material that will be released with this year’ s AEO,” assistant administrator LaRose wrote.“ We will not be releasing the narrative as currently written and will not be hosting a release event.”
The omission of the analytical section left readers to sort through the data for themselves. Joseph DeCarolis, who served as EIA administrator under Biden and is now an engineering professor at North Carolina State, called the annual outlook’ s narrative“ extremely important. It’ s important to be able to look at the results, interpret them, and explain to your audience
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