FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Leonard Tao 

Chief FOIA Officer 

CHIEF FOIA OFFICER REPORT 

March 2013 
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I. Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness 

Describe steps taken to ensure that the presumption of openness is being 

applied to all decisions involving the FOIA. 

ANSWER FOLLOWING QUESTIONS 

1. Did your agency hold an agency FOIA conference, or otherwise 

conduct training during this reporting period? Did your FOIA 

professionals attend any FOIA training, such as that provided by 

the Department of Justice? 

During FY2012 FERC conducted refresher training sessions for 

program offices. These sessions focused on proper interpretation 

of the scope of requests, and extending searches to include 

contractors and emails. All FERC Staff were encouraged to 

provide electronic versions of responsive material. FERC FOIA 

professionals also attended the National FOIA day seminar at the 

Newseum in March. FERC FOIA professionals attended the FOIA 

Annual report and Chief FOIA Officer report refresher sessions at 

the Department of Justice. 

2. Did your agency make any discretionary releases of otherwise 

exempt information? 

 During FY2012 one full discretionary release and two 

 partial discretionary releases were made to requesters. 

3. What exemptions would have covered the information that was 

released as a matter of discretion? 

 Exemption 5. 

4. Provide a narrative description, or some examples of, the types of 

information that your agency released as a matter of discretion. 

The discretionary releases that were made during FY2012 were 

internal material that could have been withheld pursuant to FOIA 

Exemption 5. These documents included staff memorandum and 

emails. 
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5. Describe any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to 

ensure that the presumption of openness is being applied. 

FERC personnel receive continuous training as to how to properly 

respond to FOIA requests in an effort to maximize compliance with 

the law. 

We have increased our communication efforts to assist customers 

by providing guidance on how to access the vast amount of 

public information that is readily available on the FERC webpage 

and e-library. We believe that these efforts have resulted in 

reducing the total number of FOIA requests that were submitted in 

FY2012. 

A comparison of the statistics in FERC’s FY2011 and FY2012 Annual 

FOIA reports indicates that 28% of the requests in FY2012 were fully 

granted. This is a 12% increase in the number of requests that were 

fully granted in FY2011. In FY2012 , 43% of requests were partially 

granted. This represents a 8% increase over the number of 

requests that were partially granted in FY2011. The Commission 

continues to strive towards being more transparent and making as 

many releases as possible. This includes our focused efforts to 

evaluate documents that contain Exemption 5 material and also 

take the age of the material into consideration when rendering a

determination regarding the release of documents. 

Breakdown of disclosures: full and partial grant 

 PROCESSED FULL PARTIAL 

 FY2012 65 18 (28%) 28 (43%) 

 FY2011 92 15 (16%) 32 (35%) 
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II. Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency Has an Effective System in 

Place for Responding to Requests 

1. Do FOIA professionals within your agency have sufficient 

 IT support? 

Yes. The FOIA professionals have always had access to IT 

professionals. During FY2012 additional IT experts were 

assigned to work directly with the FOIA professionals to 

develop a new FOIA tracking system, automate more of the 

FOIA processing functions. 

2. Do your FOIA professionals work with your agency’s 

 Open Government Team? 

The FOIA professionals and Open Government team conduct 

periodic briefings, as necessary. 

3. Has your agency assessed whether adequate staff is 

 being devoted to FOIA administration? 

Yes, we have reviewed the overall functionality of the FOIA 

program and determined that we currently have adequate 

staffing to successfully carry out the necessary tasks in a timely 

manner. However, we will continue to monitor this situation 

and make adjustments as necessary. 

4. Describe any other steps your agency has undertaken 

to ensure that your FOIA system operates efficiently and 

effectively, such as conducting self-assessments to find greater 

efficiencies, improving search processes, streamlining 

consultations, eliminating redundancy, etc. 

We have increased the level of direct interaction with 

program offices during the search process, which has resulted 

in more focused searches and appropriate responsive 

documents. E-mail notifications are sent to appropriate FOIA 

review team members to alert them of upcoming due dates. 

Weekly reports are reviewed to monitor the FOIA process. 

Staff reassignments are made as necessary to accommodate 

FOIA timelines that may conflict with other workload of Staff. 
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III. Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures 

Describe steps taken to increase the amount of material that is 

available on your agency website, and the usability of such 

information, including providing examples of proactive disclosures 

1. Provide examples of materials that your agency has 

 posted this year. 

FERC continues to post documents of interest on the FERC 

webpage and E-library. Approximately 23,404 new issuances, 

such as orders, notices, rulemakings, etc, and 64,487 new 

submittals that include settlements, Applications, comments, 

etc. were added to the FERC e-library in FY2012. 

News releases, statements, speeches, interviews, transcripts, 

special reports are readily available on the webpage. The 

webpage also provides a broad overview of FERC functions, 

as well as detailed information that is organized by specific 

industry/ and program areas. This includes brochures and tips 

to assist citizens, particularly landowners that may be directly 

affected by ongoing matters at FERC such a pipeline 

construction, eminent domain, etc. It also includes information 

about the neutral unit within FERC, Dispute Resolution Services, 

that provides mediation, facilitation, and training for parties 

engaged in or impacted by FERC- related disputes. Industry 

experts can also locate pertinent contact information on the 

webpage to obtain clarification and assistance with specific 

FERC forms to ensure that they are in full compliance and 

meet specified timeline requirements. 

Special data sets were added to the FERC e-library that can 

be utilized by a variety of power system researchers, including 

those who may be interested in the design of day ahead 

markets.

Appellate Briefs, Slip opinions and orders issued in FERC cases, 

as well as Commission decisions that are challenged in Federal 

courts are posted to the webpage. 
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The list below is sample of the types of material that has been 

posted to our webpage since October 1, 2011. 

October 18, 2012 

Items E-2 & E-3: FERC Proposes Enhancements to Reliability of Bulk Power 

System News Release | Commissioners' Statements: Norris and LaFleur | E-2 

NOPR | E-3 NOPR

 » Visit our Electric Reliability Section 

November 14, 2012 

FERC Votes to Suspend JP Morgan Ventures Energy Corp.’s Market-Based Rate 

Authority News Release | Decision

November 19, 2012 

FERC Approves Market Manipulation Settlement with Gila River News Release | 

Stipulation & Consent Agreement

December 7, 2012 

FERC, Hawaii PUC Sign Agreement on Information Sharing News Release | 

MOU

March 15, 2012 - Chairman Wellinghoff’s statement on the New Enforcement 

Mechanism for Reliability Standards Read More

March 15, 2012 - Chairman Wellinghoff’s statement on the Constellation Energy 

Commodities Group Investigation Read More

March 9, 2012 - FERC approves Settlement between Enforcement and 

Constellation Energy Commodities Group Stipulation & Consent Agreement 

Mobil Pipe Line Company v. FERC

No. 11-1021 (D.C. Cir. April 17, 2012)

May 17, 2012 2012 Summer Market and Reliability Assessment

RM12-6-000 and RM12-7-000 June 22, 2012 Revisions to Electric Reliability 

Organization Definition of Bulk Electric System and Rules of Procedure (Notice of 

Proposed Rulemaking)

July 2, 2012 RTO Unit Commitment Test System
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August 29, 2012 

FERC staff sends Fourteenth Report to Congress on progress made in licensing 

and constructing the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Report

September 12, 2012 - Chairman Wellinghoff interview with Chris Newkumet on 

“Platts Energy Week” on September 9 part 2 Transcript

September 20, 2012 

Item E-24: FERC Initiates Proceeding into Actions by JP Morgan News Release | 

Decision

2. Beyond posting new material, is your agency taking steps to 

make the posted information more useful to the public, 

especially to the community of individuals who regularly 

access your agency’s website, such as soliciting feedback on 

the content and presentation of the posted material, 

improving search capabilities on the site, creating mobile 

applications, providing explanatory material, etc.? 

Yes. 

3. If so, provide examples of such improvements. 

FERC established an abbreviated method to allow individuals 

to submit ‘e-comments’ that can include up to 6,000 

characters of text-only regarding Hydroelectric License/Relicense Proceedings, Pre-Filing Activity for Planned Natural Gas 

Projects, Applications for Authorization to Construct a Natural 

Gas Pipeline, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or Other Facility (CP 

Dockets). All filings that do not meet the special e-comment 

criteria must be submitted via FERC’s regular e-filing process. 

Individuals may also express concerns and provide feedback 

on FERC’s twitter and facebook applications. They also have 

the opportunity to interact with FERC staff face to face at 

scoping meetings that are often conducted in their 

communities. 
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4. Describe any other steps taken to increase proactive 

disclosures at your agency. 

The FERC webpage is routinely updated to reflect new topics 

of interest. The e -library is continuously updated to reflect real 

time filings and submittals for proceedings at FERC. It provides 

access to over two million documents with over 10 million 

pages that have been archived over more than 20 years. It 

contains electronic versions of documents issued by FERC from 

1989 to present, microfilm of documents for 1981 to 1995, 

native files electronically submitted from November 2000 to 

present. Members of the public can instantaneously access 

public material in the e-library. http://www.ferc.gov/docsfiling/elibrary.asp 

Members of the public are encouraged to register for 

eSubscription service for each proceeding that may be of 

interest to them. This service provides real time notification of 

activity in each proceeding. http://www.ferc.gov/docsfiling/esubscription.as 

IV. Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology 

Electronic receipt of FOIA requests: 

1. Can FOIA requests be made electronically to your agency? 

Yes. FERC has the ability to receive FOIA requests 

electronically. 

2. If your agency is decentralized, can FOIA requests be 

Made electronically to all components of your agency? 

FERC is comprised of one FOIA component. 

3. Can a FOIA requester track the status of his/her 

 request electronically? 

 No. 
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4. If so, describe the information that is provided to the 

 requester through the tracking system. For example, 

 some tracking systems might tell the requester whether 

 the request is “open” or “closed,” while others will 

 provide further details to the requester throughout the 

 course of the processing, such as “search commenced” 

 or “documents currently in review.” List the specific 

 types of information that are available through your 

 agency’s tracking system. 

 N/A 

5. In particular, does your agency tracking system provide 

the requester with an estimated date of completion for his or 

her request? 

Each requester is advised via email of the estimated 

completion date. 

6. If your agency does not provide online tracking of requests, 

 is your agency taking steps to establish this capability? 

 Yes, we expect to have the ability to carry out this 

 function upon completion of the new FOIA tracking 

 system. Currently, requesters can contact our FOIA 

 office via email or telephone for a status update. 

Use of technology to facilitate processing of requests: 

7. Beyond using technology to redact documents, is your 

agency taking steps to utilize more advanced technology to 

facilitate overall FOIA efficiency, such as improving record 

search capabilities, utilizing document sharing platforms for 

consultations and referrals, or employing software that can sort 

and de-duplicate documents? 

Yes. 
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8. If so, describe the technological improvements being made. 

As we continue our efforts to enhance our FOIA system and 

technology, this is an element that has been addressed. 

Preliminary discussions have included incorporating the 

utilization of Sharepoint for document sharing. This 

will also provide for an easier method to identify 

duplicate requests. Processing time will be reduced 

by utilizing correspondence templates and relying on new 

automated tracking and alert notifications for staff. 

V. Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests and 

Reduce Backlogs 

1. Refer to Section VII.A of your Annual FOIA Report 

 for figures on FOIA Requests – Response Time for 

 all Processed Requests. 

 

a. Does your agency utilize a separate track for 

 simple requests? 

 Yes. 

b. If so, for your agency overall, for Fiscal Year 

 2012, what was the average number of days to 

 process. 

 

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c. If your agency does not track simple requests 

separately, was the average number of days to 

process non-expedited requests twenty working days 

or fewer? simple requests twenty working days or fewer? 

 

 N/A 

2. Refer to Sections XII.D.(2) and XII.E.(2) of your Annual 

 FOIA Report for figures on backlogged requests/appeals, 

 and Sections VII.E and VI.C.(5) on the ten oldest 

 pending requests/appeals. 
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a. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close 

 of Fiscal Year 2012, did that backlog decrease 

 as compared with Fiscal Year 2011? 

 No. 

b. If your agency had a backlog of administrative 

 appeals in Fiscal Year 2012, did that backlog decrease 

 as compared to Fiscal Year 2011? 

 No. 

 

c. In Fiscal Year 2012, did your agency close the 

 Ten oldest requests that were pending as of the end 

 of Fiscal Year 2011? 

 Yes. 

d. In fiscal year 2012, did your agency close the 

 ten oldest administrative appeals that were pending 

 as of the end of Fiscal Year 2011? 

 N/A. 

3. If you answered “no” to any question in “item 2,” 

answer the following questions and include any 

additional explanation: 

 Request Backlog: 

a. Was the lack of a reduction in the request backlog 

 a result of an increase in the number of 

 incoming requests? 

 No. 

b. Was the lack of reduction in the request backlog 

 caused by a loss of staff ? 
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 No. 

c. Was the lack of a reduction in the request 

 backlog caused by an increase in the complexity of 

 the requests received? 

 Yes. 

 d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the lack 

 of a decrease in the request backlog? 

 N/A. 

Administrative Appeal Backlog:

a. Was the lack of a reduction in the backlog 

 of administrative appeals a result of an increase in 

 the number of incoming appeals? 

 No. 

b. Was the lack of a reduction in the appeal 

 backlog caused by a loss of staff ? 

 No. 

c. Was the lack of a reduction in the appeal 

 backlog caused by an increase in the complexity of 

 the appeals received? 

 No 

d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the lack of 

 a decrease in the appeal backlog? 

 The Appeal was received near the end of 

 FY2012 and was still being processed. 

4. OIP issued guidance encouraging agencies to make 
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 interim releases on requests that involve a voluminous 

 amount of material or require searches in multiple locations. 

 If your agency had a backlog in Fiscal Year 2012, provide 

 an estimate of the number of cases in the backlog where 

 a substantive, interim response was provided during the 

 fiscal year, even though the request was not finally closed. 

FERC processed approximately five backlog requests that 

included providing several substantive interim responses. 

Some of examples of these responses are reflected below: 

 Example 1. Initial response completed - 4/9/12 

 Final response completed - 12/5/12 

 Example 2. Initial response completed - 4/25/12 

 Second response completed - 6/4/12 

 Third response completed - 7/27/12 

 Fourth response completed - 9/28/12 

 Final response completed - 11/8/12 

Example 3. Initial response completed - 7/20/12 

 Final response completed - 10/16/12 

 Example 4. Initial response completed 9/24/12 

 Final response completed 11/20/12 

Answer the following questions concerning the use of the FOIA’s statutory 

law enforcement exclusions, 5 U.S.C. 552(c)(1),(2), (3): 

1. Did your agency invoke a statutory exclusion during Fiscal 

 Year 2012? 

 No. 

2. If so, what was the total number of times exclusions were invoked? 

N/A 

Describe one success story that you would like to highlight as 

emblematic of your agency’s efforts. 
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 FERC expended a considerable amount of time working 

 directly with IT experts to identify the best system to meet the 

 needs of our agency. We believe that the experience that 

 was gained during this process will greatly enhance our 

 ability develop a high performance FOIA system. 

 The new FOIA system will enhance FERC’s ability to 

 more effectively and nimbly respond to citizens’ FOIA 

 requests so that FERC may maximize an already high 

 level of compliance with the law. 
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