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Open Government

Your Government

From his first day in office, President Obama has pushed to make the federal government more open and more accessible to the American people. The Department of Energy is proud to be doing our part. In the past year, we have significantly expanded the amount of information available online about our programs, our funding awards, and our progress, as well as valuable data about energy production and consumption and trends within the energy industry. We have also used social media outlets such as YouTube and my personal Facebook page to engage the public directly and expand the national conversation on energy.

In December, the Administration directed federal agencies to take several additional steps to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration:

  • Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the government is doing.
  • Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies with the benefit of that information.
  • Collaboration improves the effectiveness of government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the federal government, across levels of government, and between the government and private institutions.

You can find all of the steps we're taking in the full Open Government Directive.

I encourage you to review the information on these pages and share your ideas with us. I look forward to reading your thoughts and to incorporating them into our effort moving forward. As always, we will keep you posted on our progress.

-Secretary Steven Chu

 

High Value Data Sets

One way we are trying to encourage collaboration and increase transparency is through the release of high value data sets. This is information that the Department of Energy has amassed over the years that we think could be of great use to the general public. We will continue to expand this collection over the coming months and hope to utilize your feedback to help us select the most useful data sets moving forward.


Deepwater Horizon Response Datasets

Deepwater Horizon Response Datasets: Due to the high level of interest in the on-going oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Data.gov is featuring data from the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of the Interior (DOI), and the states of Florida and Louisiana related to the spill, its effects, and the cleanup effort. Data include oil and gas flow and recovery measurements, air and water sample data, oil spill-related exposure information, and other data of interest to scientists, recovery workers and citizens. Data.gov will continue to provide access to as much oil spill-related information as possible.

Information Bridge Database

XML

Information Bridge Database: Contains data for Department of Energy (DOE) research report literature available in full-text online. This data services allows the downloading of bibliographic records in formats that can be used to load the records into other databases or search tools. A request for data returns the first one hundred records. See Technical Documentation for instructions on obtaining additional records.

Energy Citations Database

XML

 

Energy Citations Database: Contains bibliographic data for The Energy Citations Database (ECD) providing access to historical and current research (1948 to the present) from the Department of Energy (DOE) and predecessor agencies. This data services allows the downloading of bibliographic records in formats that can be used to load the records into other databases or search tools. A request for data returns the first one hundred records. See Technical Documentation for instructions on obtaining additional records.

DOE Patents Database

XML

 

DOE Patents Database: Department of Energy's central collection of patent information. It contains bibliographic data for a database of patents resulting from sponsored research by the Department of Energy and predecessor agencies. This data services allows the downloading of bibliographic records in a format that can be used to load the records into other databases or search tools. A request for data returns the first one hundred records. See Technical Documentation for instructions on obtaining additional records.

Geothermal Technologies
Database

XML

Geothermal Technologies Database: Contains geothermal technical and programmatic reports dating from the 1970's to present day. These "legacy" reports are among the most valuable sources of DOE-sponsored information in the field of geothermal energy technology. This data services allows the downloading of bibliographic records in formats that can be used to load the records into other databases or search tools. A request for data returns the first twenty-five records. See Technical Documentation for instructions on obtaining additional records.