Killing the publishing of crucial data series and analysis. Or better — smothering the building of open government in its crib.
From the EIA press release, this is the type of data that will no longer be available to taxpayers:
Do not prepare or publish 2011 edition of the annual data release on U.S. proved oil and natural gas reserves.
Curtail efforts to understand linkages between physical energy markets and financial trading. […]
Suspend auditing of data submitted by major oil and natural gas companies and reporting on their 2010 financial performance through EIA’s Financial Reporting System.
Terminate updates to EIA’s International Energy Statistics.
Eliminate annual published inventory of Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States.
There’s more that is being cut back or curtailed — and as you look at this list, think about how shortsighted it is while we struggle to find a path to a better energy policy that we will no longer have access to good, reliable data that would help light the way. So the debate has little chance of being informed with data any longer — because all that will be left is the made up BS of the Heartland Institute and the like. Talk about being penny wise and pound foolish.
Budget cuts may signal the demise of data.gov — the really remarkable effort to put a great deal of government data and data sets online, and available to everyone. Now cut by $8 billion, it is certain that a good chunk of the President’s initiative to get data sets (including spending data sets) available to everyone will disappear.
Open government is not in the category of waste, fraud and abuse — and really is pretty fundamental to how this democracy ought to work. There has been simply incredible progress in putting data up online and now this information looks like it will be locked back up in agencies. Republicans will trot out to disparage the lack of openess of this government — which belies the fact that this Administration has done more to open up than any other. We need to remember that data is the enemy of the current GOP crowd — because we can’t have anything that interrupts the narrative fed to them by Fox Noise.