[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 183 (Monday, September 22, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49509-49511]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-25073]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Hearings and Appeals


Notice of Issuance of Decisions and Orders; Week of August 11 
through August 15, 1997

    During the week of August 11 through August 15, 1997, 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: September 12, 1997.
George B. Breznay,
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Decision List No. 46; Week of August 11 through August 15, 1997

Appeals

David R. Berg, 8/14/97 VFA-0306

    David R. Berg filed an Appeal from a determination issued to him on 
May 28, 1997, by the Human Resources Office (HR) of the Department of 
Energy (DOE), in response to a request for information filed under both 
the Privacy Act and the FOIA. In his Appeal, Mr. Berg contended that HR 
did not adequately explain the basis upon which the responsive 
documents were withheld under the Privacy Act and that HR improperly 
relied upon FOIA Exemptions 5, 6 and 7. The DOE found HR's 
determination insufficiently informative and short of what is legally 
required. The DOE remanded Mr. Berg's Appeal to HR to either release to 
Mr. Berg all of the documents responsive to his request or issue a new 
determination adequately supporting the withholding of the documents. 
Consequently, the Appeal filed by Mr. Berg was granted in part and 
denied in part.

W.L. McCUllough 8/12/97 VFA-0314

    W.L. McCullough (Appellant) filed an Appeal of a Determination 
issued to him by the Department of Energy (DOE) in response to a 
request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In the request, 
the Appellant asked for documents concerning a grant awarded by DOE. In 
its Determination, the Oak Ridge Operations Office (DOE/ORO) released 
one document but stated that no other documents could be located in the 
possession of DOE. The Appellant challenged the adequacy of DOE/ORO's 
search. The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) found that DOE/ORO had 
conducted an adequate search of

[[Page 49510]]

DOE offices. OHA also found that DOE grantees are subject to the 
provisions of 10 C.F.R. Sec. 1004.3. However, in this case, there was 
no provision in the grant giving ownership of grantee-generated and 
owned documents to DOE. Accordingly, the Appeal was denied.

Personnel Security Hearing

Personnel Security Hearing, 8/14/97 VSO-0139

    An OHA Hearing Officer issued an opinion concerning an individual 
whose access authorization was suspended because the DOE obtained 
derogatory information that the individual had a positive drug test for 
marijuana and codeine. At a hearing convened at the individual's 
request, the individual maintained that the marijuana use was a one 
time event and that he used his wife's prescription codeine medicine 
for relief from a cough. The Hearing Officer found that the individual 
did mitigate the security concerns regarding the codeine use, but did 
not bring forth any corroboration to support the assertion that the 
marijuana use was a one time event. The hearing officer also found that 
the individual failed to present sufficient evidence of rehabilitation 
from the marijuana use. Accordingly, the Hearing Officer recommended 
that the individual's access authorization not be restored.

Personnel Security Hearing, 8/14/97, VSO-0142

    An Office of Hearings and Appeals Hearing Officer issued an Opinion 
under 10 CFR Part 710 concerning the continued eligibility of an 
individual to hold an access authorization. After considering the 
testimony at the hearing convened at the request of the individual and 
all other information in the record, the Hearing Officer found that the 
individual was properly diagnosed as having a mental condition of a 
nature which caused or may cause a significant defect in judgment or 
reliability. The Hearing Officer found that the individual sufficiently 
mitigated DOE's concern that the individual had engaged in certain 
conduct which tended to show that he was not reliable. However, the 
Hearing Officer further found that the individual had failed to 
mitigate the legitimate security concerns of DOE relating to his mental 
condition. Accordingly, the Hearing Officer recommended that the 
individual's access authorization, which had been suspended, should not 
be restored.

Supplemental Order

Vessels Gas Processing, Co., 8/13/97, VFX-0012

    The DOE issued a Decision and Order modifying the per-gallon 
volumetric factor for use in the Vessels Gas Processing Company Special 
Refund Proceeding. Based upon a review of the Vessels enforcement 
proceeding documentation, the new volumetric factor was established as 
$0.0261 per gallon.

Refund Applications

Enron Corp./Gulf Coast Petroleum, Inc., 8/14/97, RF340-109

    The DOE denied an application for refund submitted in the Enron 
Corporation (Enron) special refund proceeding concerning purchases from 
Enron made by Gulf Coast Petroleum, Inc. (Gulf Coast). The DOE found 
that Gulf Coast was a repeller whose purchases from Enron were made on 
the spot market, were sporadic and discretionary in nature, and 
apparently were unrelated to any business obligations to its regular 
customers. Accordingly, the DOE found that Gulf Coast fit the spot 
market presumption of non-injury for resellers, and that the firm had 
not made a showing of injury to overcome this presumption.

Permian Corporation/Kona Corporation, 8/13/97, RF350-1

    Kona Corporation filed an Application for Refund in the Permian 
Corporation's special refund proceeding. Kona sought an above-
volumetric refund based upon a claim that it suffered a 
disproportionate injury with respect to its purchases of crude oil in 
December 1980 and January 1981. The DOE found that Kona had not 
demonstrated that increases in its crude oil costs, and a declining 
share of price controlled crude oil, between September-October 1980 and 
December 1980-Janury 1981 were the result of regulatory violations by 
Permian. The DOE noted that prices generally were increasing during 
this period and that a number of factors could legally have accounted 
for the price increases. Therefore, Kona failed to demonstrate that it 
was entitled to an above volumetric refund. DOE noted that generally 
refiners are ineligible for refunds based upon purchases of crude oil 
because either they waived their right to a refund by filing a claim in 
the stripper well proceeding or the entitlements program insulated them 
from the affects of crude oil overcharges. Kona, however, had not filed 
a stripper well claim and there were no January or final entitlements 
lists that would have allowed the firm to pass overcharges on to the 
entitlements program for January 1981 purchases or for December 1980 
purchases for which the firm received recertifications in 1981. 
Accordingly, DOE found that Kona should be granted a volumetric refund 
for its December 1980 and January 1981 crude oil purchases.

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 Supplemental Refund Dist.......................  RB272-00115                                   8/14/97
Crude Oil Supplemental Refund Dist.......................  RB272-0116                                    8/14/97
Pahl-Ruff Partnership....................................  RC272-370                                     8/13/97
Ruff Times Farms.........................................  RK272-881                              ..............
Pahl Farms...............................................  RK272-882                              ..............
Stauffer Chemical Company................................  RF272-97240                                   8/15/97
Vermilion Service Company................................  RG272-190                                     8/13/97
Danco Prairie ES Cooperative.............................  RG272-196                              ..............
West Central Turkeys, Inc................................  RG272-892                                     8/12/97
                                                                                                                

Dismissals

    The following submissions were dismissed.

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                     Name                               Case No.        
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Al-Chroma Inc................................  RK272-4500               
Almar Corp...................................  RK272-4469               
Anna Ruth Prassel............................  RK272-4351               

[[Page 49511]]

                                                                        
``C'' Ventures, Inc..........................  RK272-4498               
Carol Lina Bedford...........................  RK272-4354               
Charles E. Gay...............................  RK272-4355               
Daniel Products Company, Inc.................  RF272-98793              
Dean Foods Products Co.......................  RK272-4435               
Edmund Aldrete...............................  RK272-4352               
Erie Lackawanna Railway Co...................  RK272-4474               
Harley Clark Super 100.......................  RF342-208                
James Baehr Truck Service....................  RK272-4492               
Loyd Salsbury/MYRL Salsbury..................  RK272-4502               
Mount Pleasant Dairy, Inc....................  RK272-4454               
Omc Johnson..................................  RK272-4464               
Paul W. Geisler..............................  RK272-4356               
Pepsi Cola Company...........................  RK272-4499               
Resource Net International...................  RK272-4491               
Suprenant Wire & Cable.......................  RK272-4494               
T & W Forge, Inc.............................  RK272-4473               
Taos Gravel Products.........................  RK272-4501               
Texfie Industries............................  RK272-4497               
Towry Enterprises, Inc.......................  RK272-4493               
University Gulf..............................  RF300-21708              
William D. Medlyn............................  RK272-4357               
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[FR Doc. 97-25073 Filed 9-19-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P