[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 248 (Tuesday, December 24, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67798-67799]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-32650]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Notice of Issuance of Decisions and Orders During the Week of
November 4 Through November 8, 1996
During the week of November 4 through November 8, 1996, the
decisions and orders summarized below were issued with respect to
appeals, applications, petitions, or other requests filed with the
Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Department of Energy. The
following summary also contains a list of submissions that were
dismissed by the Office of Hearings and Appeals.
Copies of the full text of these decisions and orders are available
in the Public Reference Room of the Office of Hearings and Appeals,
Room 1E-234, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW,
Washington, D.C. 20585-0107, Monday through Friday, between the hours
of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., except federal holidays. They are also
available in Energy Management: Federal Energy Guidelines, a
commercially published loose leaf reporter system. Some decisions and
orders are available on the Office of Hearings and Appeals World Wide
Web site at http://www.oha.doe.gov.
Dated: December 12, 1996
George B. Breznay,
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals.
Appeals
F.A.C.T.S., 11/7/96, VFA-0227
F.A.C.T.S. (For A Clean Tonawanda Site), a public interest group,
filed an Appeal from a determination issued by the Oak Ridge Operations
Office (Oak Ridge) of the Department of Energy (DOE) in response to a
Request for Information submitted under the Freedom of Information Act.
The DOE consulted with Oak Ridge on this matter and that Office agreed
to undertake a new search in conjunction with other ongoing FOIA
searches being done for F.A.C.T.S. The DOE also determined that
F.A.C.T.S. could not expand the scope of its request on appeal by
requesting additional documents. Accordingly, the Appeal was denied in
part, granted in part, and remanded to Oak Ridge for a further search.
Thomas P. Koenings, 11/6/96, VFA-0215
Thomas P. Koenigs filed an Appeal from a determination issued to
him by the Savannah River Operations Office (Savannah River) of the
Department of Energy (DOE) in response to a Request for Information
submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Mr. Koenigs had
sought information on DOE Account 89X6090 which holds unclaimed funds
due creditors of certain DOE contractors. He also sought information
concerning certain other Savannah River accounts. His request, made in
1994, sought this information from January 1986 to present. In response
to the request Savannah River released lists showing the names of
persons or companies owed money, check numbers, and the amounts of the
payment due. Many of the lists also had, inter alia, a social security
number, an employee number, or a payee/paycheck number. Savannah River
released all of the information except the names of individuals and
corresponding social security, employee or payee/paycheck number. This
information was withheld under Exemption 6 of the FOIA which permits
the agency to withhold information release of which would cause a
clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Savannah River also
informed Mr. Koenigs that any addresses for the persons on the released
lists would only be found in contractor personnel records which are not
subject to the FOIA. Finally, Savannah River only released information
from January 1986 to approximately the date of the request in 1994.
In considering the Appeal, the DOE determined that there is a
considerable privacy interest in linking the names of individuals with
financial information about that individual such as money owed to that
person. The DOE also found a considerable privacy interest for the
social security numbers. However, the DOE found the employee numbers
involved a lower privacy interest than the social security numbers. The
payee/payroll number has a privacy interest below these two. The other
parts of the Exemption 6 analysis, identifying the public interest and
balancing the public and private interests could not be performed in
consideration of the appeal because of insufficient information on the
nature and use of the accounts involved. In addition, the DOE found
that further analysis is required to support Savannah River's assertion
that addresses would only be found in contractor personnel records.
Finally, the DOE held that when the requester seeks current information
and the agency's response is substantially delayed, a responding office
should continue its search beyond the date of the request to a date
reasonably close to the time the search starts and/or a determination
is issued. Accordingly, the appeal was granted in part, denied in part,
and remanded to the Savannah River Operations Office for further
consideration.
Refund Applications
The Office of Hearings and Appeals issued the following Decisions
and Orders concerning refund applications, which are not summarized.
Copies of the full texts of the Decisions and Orders are available in
the Public Reference Room of the Office of Hearings and Appeals.
Community Oil Co. of Day Cnty et al...................... RF272-95237 11/6/96
Crude Oil Supple Ref Dist................................ RB272-00093 11/6/96
Peetz Farmers Co-op Co. et al............................ RG272-00944 11/7/96
Pepin Distributing Co. et al............................. RG272-00820 11/7/96
Talladega County......................................... RF272-69071 11/6/96
Township of Granklin et al............................... RG272-611 11/4/96
[[Page 67799]]
Transco Exploration Co. et al............................ RK272-03456 11/4/96
United Water New Jersey, F/K/A Hackens; Guy Heavener RF272-97814; RF272-97850; RF272-97830 11/6/96
Inc.; W.T. Myles Transportation Co..
Dismissals
The following submissions were dismissed.
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Name Case No.
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Camp Bauman Buses, Inc....................... RF272-95256
Custer Farmer's Cooperative Exchange......... RF272-95280
Marine Drilling Companies, Inc............... RF272-95276
Mid-State Paving/T L James & Co.............. RF272-95265
Nuway Cooperative............................ RG272-492
Olsen Drilling Company....................... RF272-95296
S&M Realty Company........................... RF272-78560
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[FR Doc. 96-32650 Filed 12-23-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
