Department of Energy
Washington, DC 20585

DEC1 1 2018
Austin R. Evers
American Oversight
1030 15th Street, NW
Suite B255
Washington, DC 20005
Via email: foia@americanoversight.org
Re: HQ-2018-00271-F
Dear Mr. Evers:
This is the final response to the request for inf01mation that you sent to the Depaitment of
Energy (DOE) under the Freedom oflnformation Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 . You requested :
All communications between DOE and any employee or representative of any of
the entities listed in Appendix A containing any of the following search terms
(whether in the body or subject):
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Section 202( c)
§ 202(c)
Section 205
§ 205
Section 206
§ 206
"premature retirements of power plants "
"sha ll establish a tai·iff that provides a just and reasonab le rate"
"essential energy and ancillary reliability services"

The search for responsive records should include all individuals and location s
likely to contain responsive record s, including to the Office of the Secretary, the
Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Energy and each of its offices, the
Office of Energy Policy & Systems Analysis, and the four Power Marketing
Administrations.
Please provide all responsive records from January 20, 2017, until September 28,
2017. Please note that we do not wish to obtain copies of any news or press
clippings regarding these issues that are otherwise publicly available; accordingly
you may omit press clippings from the documents provided to this request, unles s
the record includes commentary on the press coverage.

 On October 25, 2018, in an email exchange with Ms. Rachel Fellows of this office, you provided
DOE with the following domain names for the entities listed in Appendix A:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

19.
20.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce - @uschamber.com
Edison Electric Institute - @eei.org
Nuclear Energy Institute - @nei.org
American Coal Council - @americancoalcouncil.o rg
National Coal Council-@nationalcoalcouncil.org
American Energy Alliance - @americanenergya lliance.org
Institute for Energy Research - @instituteforenergyresearch .org
American Coalition for Clean Coal Elech·icity @americaspower.org
Peabody Energy-@peabodyenergy.com
American Legislative Exchange Council - @alec .org
Arch Coal-@archcoal.com
Alpha Natural Resources-@alphanr.com
Cloud Peak Energy-@cloudpeakenergy.com
SMR Start-@smrstart.org
American Electric Power - @aep.com
Heartland Institute - @heartland.org
Americans for Prosperity-@americansforprosperity.org
Murray Energy-@murrayene rgycorp. com and
@coalsource.com
First Energy - @firstenergycorp.com
The Southern Company - @southemcompany.com

On November 5, 2018, in an email exchange with Ms. Rachel Fellows of this office, you agreed
to remove the 202( c) search terms from the request upon receiving certain documents that DOE
had previously released to another requester. On November 6, 2018, in a series of six (6) emails,
Ms. Fellows provided these documents to you. On November 8, 2018, you confirmed your
receipt of these documents and agreed to exclude the first two (2) search terms listed in the
request, "Section 202(c)" and"§ 202(c)" .
On December 3, 2018, in an email exchange with Ms. Rachel Fellows, you agreed to waive any
publicly available email attachments from the request.
Your request was assigned to DOE 's Office of the Executive Secretariat (ES) and Office of
Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (OP) to conduct searches of their files for responsive
documents. DOE began its search on October 30, 2018, which is the cut-off date for responsive
documents. DOE completed its search but did not locate any documents responsive to your
request.
Therefore, pursuant to Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) § 1004.4(d), I am unable to
provide any responsive documents for ES and OP. Pursuant to 10 C.F.R. § 1004.7(b)(2), I am
responsible for the determination that no responsive records exist at ES and OP.

 The adequacy of the search may be appealed within 90 calendar days from your receipt of this
letter pursuant to 10 C.F.R. § 1004.8. Appeals shou ld be addressed to Director, Office of
Hearings and Appeals, HG-1, L 'E nfant Plaza , U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence
Avenue , S.W., Washington , D.C. 20585-1615. The written appeal , including the envelope, mu st
clearly indicate that a FOIA appeal is being made. You may also submit your appeal by e-mail
to OHA.filings@hq.doe.gov, including the phrase "Freedom of Information Appeal" in the
subject line (This is the method preferred by the Office of Hearings and Appea ls.) . The appeal
must contain all the elements required by 10 C.F.R. § 1004.8, including a copy of the
dete1mination letter. Thereafter , judicial review will be available to you in the Federal District
Court either (1) in the district where you reside, (2) where you have your principal place of
business, (3) where DO E's records are situated, or (4) in the District of Columbia.
You may contact DOE' s FOIA Public Liaison, Alexander Morris, FOIA Officer, Office of
Public Infmmation, at 202-586-5955, or by mail at MA-46 Fonestal Building , 1000
Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington , D.C. 20585, for any further ass istance and to discu ss
any aspect of your reque st. Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government
Info1mation Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire
about the FOIA med iation services they offer. The contact info1mation for OGIS is as follows:
Office of Government Infmmation Services, Nationa l Archives and Records Administration,
8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park , Maryland 20740-6001 ; e-mail at ogis@nara.gov;
telephone at 202 -74 1-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769 .
The FOIA provides for the assessment of fees for the processing ofrequests . See 5 U.S.C. §
552(a)(4)(A)(i); see also 10 C.F.R. § 1004.9(a). In our January 11, 2018, lett er, you were
advised that your request was placed in the "other" category for fee purposes. Requesters in this
category are charged fees for duplication only and are provided 100 pages at no cost. Requesters
in this category are entitled to two (2) free hours of search time and are provided 100 pages at no
cost. In that same letter, you were info1med that your request for a fee waiver had been granted.
Thus, no fees will be charged for processing your request.
If you have any questions about the processing of the request or this letter, you may contact me
or Ms. Rachel Fellows of my office at:
MA-46/Fonestal Building
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W .
Washington , D.C. 20585
(202) 287-683 1
I appreciate the opportunity to assist you with this matter.
Sincerely,

Office of Public Information