NATIONAL ENERGY INFORMATION SYSTEM

SEC. 52. (a) It shall be the duty of the Director to establish a National Energy Information System (hereinafter referred to in this Act as the "System"), which shall be operated and maintained by the Office. The System shall contain such information as is required to provide a description of and facilitate analysis of energy supply and consumption within and affecting the United States on the basis of such geographic areas and economic sectors as may be appropriate to meet adequately the needs of

(1) the Federal Energy Administration in carrying out its lawful functions;

(2) the Congress;

(3) other officers and employees of the United States in whom have been vested, or to whom have been delegated, energy-related policy decisionmaking responsibilities; and

(4) the States to the extent required by the Natural Gas Act and the Federal Power Act.

(b) At a minimum, the System shall contain such energy information as is necessary to carry out the Administration's statistical and forecasting activities, and shall include, at the earliest date and to the maximum extent practical subject to the resources available and the Director's ordering of those resources to meet the responsibilties of his Office, such energy information as is required to define and permit analysis of

(1) the institutional structure of the energy supply system including patterns of ownership and control of mineral fuel and nonmineral energy resources and the production, distribution, and marketing of mineral fuels and electricity;

(2) the consumption of mineral fuels, nonmineral energy resources, and electricity by such classes, sectors, and regions as may be appropriate for the purposes of this Act;

(3) the sensitivity of energy resource reserves, exploration, development, production, transportation, and consumption to economic factors, environmental constraints, technological improvements, and substitutability of alternate energy sources; (4) the comparability of energy information and statistics that are supplied by different sources;

(5) industrial, labor, and regional impacts of changes in patterns of energy supply and consumption;

(6) international aspects, economic and otherwise, of the evolving energy situation; and

(7) long-term relationships between energy supply and consumption in the United States and world communities.

ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS

SEC. 53. (a) The Director of the Office shall receive compensation at the rate now or hereafter prescribed for offices and positions at level IV of the Executive Schedule as specified in section 5315 of title 5, United States Code.

(b) To carry out the functions of the Office, the Director, on behalf of the Administrator, is authorized to appoint and fix the compensa

tion of such professionally qualified employees as he deems necessary, including up to ten of the employees in grade GS-16, GS-17, or GS-18 authorized by section 7 of this Act.

(c) The functions and powers of the Office shall be vested in or delegated to the Director, who may from time to time, and to the extent permitted by law, consistent with the purposes of this Act, delegate such of his functions as he deems appropriate. Such delegation may be made, upon request, to any officer or agency of the Federal Government.

(d) (1) The Director shall be available to the Congress to provide testimony on such subjects under his authority and responsibility as the Congress may request, including but not limited to energy information and analyses thereof.

(2) Any request for appropriations for the Federal Energy Administration submitted to the Congress shall identify the portion of such request intended for the support of the Office, and a statement of the differences, if any, between the amounts requested and the Director's assessment of the budgetary needs of the Office.

ANALYTICAL CAPABILITY

SEC. 54. (a) The Director shall establish and maintain the scientific, engineering, statistical, or other technical capability to perform analysis of energy information to

(1) verify the accuracy of items of energy information submitted to the Director; and

(2) insure the coordination and comparability of the energy information in possession of the Office and other Federal agencies.

(b) The Director shall establish and maintain the professional and analytic capability to evaluate independently the adequacy and comprehensiveness of the energy information in possession of the Office and other agencies of the Federal Government in relation to the purposes of this Act and for the performance of the analyses described in section 52 of this Act. Such analytic capability shall include

(1) expertise in economics, finance, and accounting;

(2) the capability to evaluate estimates of reserves of mineral fuels and nonmineral energy resources utilizing alternative methodologies;

(3) the development and evaluation of energy flow and accounting models describing the production, distribution, and consump tion of energy by the various sectors of the economy and lines of commerce in the energy industry;

(4) the development and evaluation of alternative forecasting models describing the short- and long-term relationships between energy supply and consumption and appropriate variables; and (5) such other capabilities as the Director deems necessary to achieve the purposes of this Act.

PROFESSIONAL AUDIT REVIEW OF PERFORMANCE OF OFFICE

SEC. 55. (a) The procedures and methodology of the Office shall be subject to a thorough annual performance audit review. Such review

shall be conducted by a Professional Audit Review Team which shall prepare a report describing its investigation and reporting its findings to the President and to the Congress.

(b) The Professional Audit Review Team shall consist of at least six professionally qualified persons who shall be officers or employees of the United States and of whom at least—

one shall be designated by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers;

one shall be designated by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics; one shall be designated by the Administrator of Social and Economic Statistics;

one shall be designated by the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission;

one shall be designated by the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; and

one, who shall be the Chairman of the Professional Audit Review Team, shall be designated by the Comptroller General. (c) The Director and the Administrator shall cooperate fully with the Professional Audit Review Team and notwithstanding any other provisions of law shall make available to the Team such data, information, documents, and services as the Team determines are necessary for successful completion of its performance audit review.

(d) Except as authorized by law, any person who

(1) obtains, in the course of exercising the functions of the Professional Audit Review Team, information which constitutes a trade secret or confidential commercial information, the disclosure of which could result in significant competitive injury to the person to which such information relates; and

(2) willfully discloses such information;

shall be fined not more than $40,000, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

COORDINATION OF ENERGY INFORMATION ACTIVITIES

SEC. 56. (a) In carrying out the purposes of this Act the Director shall, as he deems appropriate, review the energy information gathering activities of Federal agencies with a view toward avoiding duplication of effort and minimizing the compliance burden on business enterprises and other persons.

(b) In exercising his responsibilities under subsection (a) of this section, the Director shall recommend policies which, to the greatest extent practicable

(1) provide adequately for the energy information needs of the various departments and agencies of the Federal Government, the Congress, and the public;

(2) minimize the burden of reporting energy information on businesses, other persons, and especially small businesses;

(3) reduce the cost to Government of obtaining information; and

(4) utilize files of information and existing facilities of established Federal agencies.

(c) (1) At the earliest practicable date after the date of enactment of this section, each Federal agency which is engaged in the gathering

of energy information as a part of an established program, function, or other activity shall promptly provide the Administrator with a report on energy information which

(A) identifies the statutory authority upon which the energy information collection activities of such agency is based;

(B) lists and describes the energy information needs and requirements of such agency; and

(C) lists and describes the categories, definitions, levels of detail, and frequency of collection of the energy information collected by such agency.

Such agencies shall cooperate with the Administrator and provide such other descriptive information with respect to energy information activities as the Administrator may request. The Administrator shall prepare a report on his activities under this subsection, which report shall include recommendations with respect to the coordination of energy information activities of the Federal Government. Such report shall be available to the Congress and shall be transmitted to the President and to the Energy Resources Council for use in preparation of the plan required under subsection (c) of section 108 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974.

REPORTS

SEC. 57. (a) The Director shall make periodic reports and may make special reports to the Congress and the public, including but not limited to

(1) such reports as the Director determines are necessary to provide a comprehensive picture of the quarterly, monthly, and, as appropriate, weekly supply and consumption of the various nonmineral energy resources, mineral fuels, and electricity in the United States; the information reported may be organized by company, by States, by regions, or by such other producing and consuming sectors, or combinations thereof, and shall be accompanied by an appropriate discussion of the evolution of the energy supply and consumption situation and such national and international trends and their effects as the Director may find to be significant; and

(2) an annual report which includes, but is not limited to, a description of the activities of the Office and the National Energy Information System during the preceding year; a summary of all special reports published during the preceding year; a summary of statistical information collected during the preceding year; short-, medium-, and long-term energy consumption and supply trends and forecasts under various assumptions; and, to the maximum extent practicable, a summary or schedule of the amounts of mineral fuel resources, nonmineral energy resources, and mineral fuels that can be brought to market at various prices and technologies and their relationship to forecasted demands.

(b) (1) The Director, on behalf of the Administrator, shall insure that adequate documentation for all statistical and forecast reports prepared by the Director is made available to the public at the time of publication of such reports. The Director shall periodically audit and validate analytical methodologies employed in the preparation of periodic statistical and forecast reports.

(2) The Director shall, on a regular basis, make available to the public information which contains validation and audits of periodic statistical and forecast reports.

(c) Prior to publication, the Director may not be required to obtain the approval of any other officer or employee of the United States with respect to the substance of any statistical or forecasting technical reports which he has prepared in accordance with the law.

ENERGY INFORMATION IN POSSESSION OF OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES

SEC. 58. (a) In furtherance and not in limitation of any other authority, the Director, on behalf of the Administrator, shall have access to energy information in the possession of any Federal agency except information

(1) the disclosure of which to another Federal agency is expressly prohibited by law; or

(2) the disclosure of which the agency so requested determines would significantly impair the discharge of authorities and responsibilities which have been delegated to, or vested by law, in such agency.

(b) In the event that energy information in the possession of another Federal agency which is required to achieve the purposes of this Act is denied the Director or the Administrator pursuant to paragraph (1) or paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of this section, the Administrator, or the Director, on behalf of the Administrator, shall take appropriate action, pursuant to authority granted by law, to obtain said information from the original sources or a suitable alternate source. Such source shall be notified of the reason for this request for information.

CONGRESSIONAL ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN POSSESSION OF THE OFFICE

SEC. 59. The Director shall promptly provide upon request any energy information in the possession of the Office to any duly established committee of the Congress. Such information shall be deemed the property of such committee and may not be disclosed except in accordance with the rules of such committee and the Rules of the House of Representatives of the Senate and as permitted by law.