[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 39 (Tuesday, February 27, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7254-7255]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-4407]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Notice of Issuance of Decisions and Orders by the Office of
Hearings and Appeals; Week of May 22 Through May 26, 1995
During the week of May 22 through May 26, 1995, the decisions and
orders summarized below were issued with respect to appeals and
applications for other relief 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.
Appeal
A. Victorian, 5/22/95, VFA-0036
Dr. A. Victorian (Appellant) filed an Appeal from a final
determination by the Acting Director of the Office of Intergovernmental
and External Affairs of the Albuquerque Operations Office of the
Department of Energy (DOE/AL). DOE/AL withheld certain documents
identified as responsive to Appellant's request on the grounds that
they contained sensitive and personal information. Although the person
named in the documents was deceased, DOE/AL found that the surviving
relatives of the named individual had a privacy interest in the
information and withheld the documents under Exemption 6. In
considering the Appeal, the DOE found that while a privacy interest in
the information existed, DOE/AL did not balance this interest against
the public interest in disclosing the information. Accordingly, the
Appeal was remanded to DOE/AL so that it could balance the privacy
interest of surviving relatives against the public interest in
disclosure in a manner consistent with this Decision.
Personnel Security Hearings
Albuquerque Operations Office, 5/22/95, VSO-0018
An OHA Hearing Officer issued an Opinion recommending against
restoring the access authorization of a DOE contractor employee. The
employee's ``Q'' clearance had been suspended by the Operations Office
Manager after a DOE-sponsored psychiatrist found that the employee was
a user of alcohol habitually to excess and suffered from ``substance
abuse, alcohol,'' a mental condition which causes or may cause a
significant defect in judgment or reliability. The
[[Page 7255]]
evidence in the record indicated that the employee had a lengthy
history of arrests and convictions for alcohol-related traffic
offenses, including two within the last 18 months. At the hearing, the
employee admitted that he had been an alcohol abuser, but introduced
evidence of his progress towards rehabilitation during the six month
period immediately prior to the hearing. The Hearing Officer concluded
that the employee had not as yet abstained from alcohol long enough to
demonstrate that he was rehabilitated from his drinking problem, and
that as a result, the employee's history of alcohol abuse still raised
serious security concerns. For these reasons, the Hearing Officer
concluded that the employee had failed to show that restoring the
employee's access authorization would not endanger the common defense
and security and would be clearly consistent with the national
interest.
Albuquerque Operations Office, 5/25/95, VSO-0019
A DOE Hearing Officer issued an Opinion concerning the eligibility
of an individual for continued ``Q'' access authorization. Tests
conducted as part of a routine annual physical examination indicated
that the individual had used cocaine. The individual claimed that he
had not used cocaine. He argued that this use of certain over-the-
counter medications prior to the drug test should have resulted in
positive results for drugs other than cocaine, and that the lack of
such results proved that the tested specimen was not his. After
reviewing the chain-of-custody documentation for the specimen and
considering expert testimony on the effects of over-the-counter
medications on drug tests, the Hearing Officer found that the tested
specimen was the individual's and the individual must have used
cocaine. The Hearing Officer, therefore, found that the individual's
denials of cocaine use were falsifications and that the individual had
violated a drug certification which he had signed. The Hearing Officer
concluded that the individual's access authorization should not be
restored.
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.
Crude Oil Supple. Refund Distribution et al.............. RB272-4 05/23/95
Crude Oil Supplemental Refund Distribution et al......... RB272-3 05/23/95
Gloucester Trucking...................................... RF272-97259 05/23/95
Kessler Institute for Rehab et al........................ RF272-92130 05/23/95
Squaw Transit Co......................................... RF272-74580 05/23/95
Squaw Transit Co......................................... RD272-74580
Texaco Inc./Al's Texaco.................................. RF321-13059 05/22/95
Texaco Inc./Associated Transport, Inc.................... RF321-13106 05/23/95
Dismissals
The following submissions were dismissed:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name Case No.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Albany Independent School District........... RF272-97390
Andy's Texaco................................ RF321-20772
Bill Clendening Texaco....................... RF321-20749
Energy Cooperative, Inc...................... RF340-120
Gall Silica Mining Co., Inc.................. RF272-97436
Harvey Texaco................................ RF321-20766
Leaseway Transportation Corp................. RF272-97308
Liberty County Board of Commissioners........ RF272-97432
Oklahoma State University.................... RF272-98486
Richard M. Ross.............................. VFA-0042
Roaring Spring, PA........................... RF272-86781
Texaco Gas Station........................... RF321-20762
The Gates Rubber Company..................... RF272-88647
The Gates Rubber Company..................... RF272-93720
Unico, Inc................................... RF321-6384
Valley Line Company.......................... RF272-98124
Victoria Independent School District......... RF272-97440
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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, S.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20585, 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.
Dated: February 14, 1996.
George B. Breznay,
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals.
[FR Doc. 96-4407 Filed 2-26-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
