Barrasso Issues Report on the International Energy Agency

Report details IEA’s flawed modeling and calls on agency to focus on energy security

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, released a report documenting how the International Energy Agency has moved away from its energy security mission to become an “energy transition” cheerleader. This follows a letter Senator Barrasso sent earlier this year to Dr. Fatih Birol, Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), urging him to return the agency to its core mission of promoting energy security.

KEY REPORT EXCERPTS:

“French President Macron’s observation that IEA has become the ‘armed wing for implementing the Paris Agreement’ is regrettably true. With the many serious energy security challenges facing the world, however, IEA should not be a partisan cheerleader. What the world needs from IEA—and what it is not receiving now—is sober and unbiased analyses and projections that educate and inform policymakers and investors. IEA needs to remember why it was established and return to its energy security mission.”

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“IEA should once again produce for its World Energy Outlook a real unbiased, policy-neutral ‘business as usual’ reference case of the kind the Energy Information Administration produces. It also must make it loud and clear that it does not endorse ending investments in oil, natural gas, and coal. IEA also should make all of its data and methodologies, which are paid for by taxpayers, freely available.”

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“China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela pose challenges both old and new to world energy security. A strong, unbiased IEA can help us navigate these challenges, but only if it has the confidence of its members. IEA was once the gold standard of energy security, but its reputation has lost its luster. In the 119th Congress, the Senate must work to restore IEA’s credibility and revive its core mission—energy security.”

Click here to read the report in full.