Elon Musk may have left the Trump administration months ago, but his scent lingers in nearly every federal office building. The latest agency to be stuck in the legacy of the Department of Government Efficiency is the Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to Bloombergthe department missed the publication time for the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, an important update closely watched by players in the energy industry.

On paper, the delay might not seem like much. The report, which contains weekly data on the state of the US oil market, was due at 10:30 a.m. on Monday but was delayed until 5 p.m., after trading markets closed for the day. But delays are rare for the report, and the EIA was hit hard by DOGE cuts earlier this year. According to Bloomberg, the agency has lost more than 100 of its nearly 350-person staff, leaving the rest shorthanded as they try to keep everything running smoothly.

While the report continued to come out on time, even with the government shutdown, an apparent coding error resulted in the delay. The report is also technically late, though through no fault of the EIA. However, it was pulled from its normal release on Wednesday and pushed to Monday thanks to an executive order signed by Donald Trump. declared December 24 and 26 as federal holidays. It joins other previously-trusted government reports, such as Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment reportas examples of the federal government losing its status as a reliable source of information.

The delay, the explosion of a problem even if it could, is a good reminder of how much damage has been done to the underlying infrastructure of the federal government by Trump, Musk, and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The truth is, it seems The Guardian recently pointed outwe still have no real idea of ​​how much damage has been done.

Take the DOGE at its word—a dubious decision, how its numbers proved unreliable—the agency saved about $214 billion to spend by canceling federal contracts, firing workers, and closing departments. The others estimates put that closer to $ 16 billion, while a report from congressional Democrats suggests DOGE actually generated $21.7 billion in waste. Regardless, one effect is real and easy to see: Government is smaller and works less efficiently.

According to the Trump administrationthe federal government will exit 2025 with 300,000 fewer employees than it did at the start of the year. That includes 100 or more who have left the EIA, resulting in the agency losing credibility as it struggles to keep operating. A source told Bloomberg that the industry is “rolling their eyes at how bad and unpredictable data is coming from the US government.” That doesn’t seem like a good sign.