202.21 Purpose and scope.

202.22 Production or disclosure prohibited unless approved by appropriate DOE official.

202.23 Procedure in the event of a demand for production or disclosure. 202.24 Final action by the appropriate DOE official.

202.25 Procedure where a decision concern

ing a demand is not made prior to the time a response to the demand is required.

202.26 Procedure in the event of an adverse ruling.

AUTHORITY: Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552; Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973, Pub. L. 93-159; Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, E.O. 11790, 39 FR 23185, unless otherwise noted.

SOURCE: 39 FR 35472, Oct. 1, 1974, unless otherwise noted.

Subpart A-Production or Disclosure Under 5 U.S.C. 552

SOURCE: 40 FR 11707, Mar. 13, 1975, unless otherwise noted.

§ 202.1 Purpose and scope.

This subpart contains the regula tions of the Department of Energy (DOE) implementing 5 U.S.C. 552

(1970) as amended by Pub. L. 93-502, 88 Stat. 1561. The regulations of this subpart provide information concerning the procedures by which records may be obtained from all divisions within the DOE. Official records of the DOE made available pursuant to the requirements of 5 U.S.C. 552 shall be furnished to members of the public as prescribed by this subpart. Officers and employees of the DOE may furnish to the public, informally and without compliance with procedures prescribed herein, information and records of types which prior to enactment of 5 U.S.C. 552 were furnished customarily in the regular performance of their duties to the public by other agencies. Persons seeking information or records of the DOE may find it useful to consult with DOE's Information Access Office before invoking the formal procedures set out below. To the extent permitted by other laws, the DOE will make available records which it is authorized to withhold under 5 U.S.C. 552 unless it determines that such disclosure is not in the public interest.

(Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended; Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, as amended; E.O. 11790, 39 FR 23185)

[42 FR 41270, Aug. 16, 1977]

§ 202.2 Public reference facilities.

(a) The National Office, DOE and Regional Offices, DOE will maintain in a public reading room or public reading area, the materials relating to that office which are required by 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2) to be made available for public inspection and copying.

(b) Each of these public reference facilities will maintain and make available for public inspection and copying current indexes of the materials available at that facility which are required to be indexed by 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2), and the National Office, DOE, will maintain and make available for public inspection and copying copies of all such indexes. Energy Management: Federal Energy Guidelines, a commercially published loose leaf reporter system, indexes and publishes a

number of the materials required to be made public under 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2), and is available through private commercial subscription. The Guidelines are available for inspection and copying in the public reading rooms. In addition, the DOE National Energy Information Center will publish, on a quarterly basis, a listing of all energy data bases and publications as a guide to other types of information, not referred to by 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2), collected or generated by the DOE.

(Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended; Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, as amended; E.O. 11790, 39 FR 23185)

[39 FR 35472, Oct. 1, 1974, as amended at 42 FR 41270, Aug. 16, 1977]

§ 202.3 Requests for reasonably described records and copies.

(a) Addressed to the Information Access Officer. A request for a record of the DOE which is not customarily made available and which is not available in a public reference facility as described in § 202.2 shall be addressed to the Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. 20461, and shall be clearly marked on the envelope "Attention: Information Access Officer". Except as provided in § 202.8(c), a request which is so addressed and marked will be considered to be received by the DOE for purposes of 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6) upon delivery to the Information Access Office, Room 2107, New Post Office Building at 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. A request under 5 U.S.C. 552 which is not so addressed and marked shall be considered to be received upon actual receipt by the Information Access Officer. Documents delivered after regular business hours are deemed received on the next regular business day. Regular business hours for the DOE National Office are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

(b) Request should be in writing and for reasonably described records. A request for access to records should be submitted in writing and should reasonably describe the records requested to enable DOE personnel to locate them with a reasonable amount of effort. Where possible, specific information regarding dates, titles, file designations, and other information

which may help identify the records should be supplied by the requester, including the names and titles of any DOE officers or employees who have been contacted regarding the request prior to filing of a written request. If the request relates to a matter in pending litigation, the court and its location should be identified to aid in locating the documents. If the records are known to be in a Regional Office of the DOE, the request should so state and should identify the Regional Office concerned.

(c) Form may be requested. Where the information supplied by the requester is not sufficient to permit location of the records by DOE personnel with a reasonable amount of effort, the requester may be sent and asked to fill out and return a form which is designed to elicit the necessary information.

(d) Categorical requests-(1) Must meet reasonably described records requirement. A request for all records falling within a reasonably specific category shall be regarded as conforming to the statutory requirement that records be reasonably described if it can reasonably be determined which particular records are sought in the requests, and the records can be searched for, collected, and produced without unreasonably burdening or interfering with DOE operations because of the staff time consumed or the resulting disruption of files.

(2) Assistance in reformulating nonconforming requests. If it is determined that a categorical request would unreasonably burden or interfere with the operations of the DOE under paragraph (d)(1) of this section, the response denying the request on those grounds shall specify the reasons why and the extent to which compliance would burden or interfere with DOE operations, and shall extend to the requester an opportunity to confer with knowledgeable DOE personnel in an attempt to restate the request or reduce the request to manageable proportions by reformulation and by agreeing on an orderly procedure for the production of the records.

(e) Requests for records of other agencies. Some of the records in the files of the DOE have been obtained

from other federal agencies. Where it is determined that the question of the availability of requested records is primarily the responsibility of another federal agency, the Information Access Officer will inquire of the originating agency as to whether it concurs in release of the records. If that agency does not concur within the time for DOE response to the request, the Information Access Officer will refer the request to the originating agency, and inform the requester of the appropriate official with whom to pursue his request. The DOE will accompany such referral with a recommendation, based on the interest of DOE in such records, concerning the disclosure of the requested records.

(Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended; Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-275, as amended; E.O. 11790, 39 FR 23185)

[39 FR 35472, Oct. 1, 1974, as amended at 42 FR 41270, Aug. 16, 1977]

§ 202.4

Time for response to request for records.

(a) An Information Access Officer, appointed by the Associate Administrator for Management, shall be responsible for processing written requests for records submitted pursuant to this part. Upon receiving such a request, the Information Access Officer shall ascertain which division or divisions of the DOE have primary responsibility for, custody of, or concern with the records requested and forward the request to such division or divisions, who shall promptly identify and review the records encompassed by the request. After reviewing the material, the division or divisions concerned shall forward to the Information Access Officer either the requested material, or a recommendation that the request be wholly or partially denied. Any recommendation that a request be denied shall set forth the policy considerations supporting such denial and shall be forwarded, with the information sought or a representative sample thereof, to the Information Access Officer, who shall provide such recommendation and materials to the General Counsel for his review and recommendation.

(b) On the basis of the recommendations of the division or divisions, the Information Access Officer shall either (1) grant the request, (2) deny the request, (3) grant it in part and/or deny it in part, or (4) reply with a response either stating that the request has been referred to another agency under § 202.3(e) of this part, or that additional information is needed from the requester to render the records reasonably described; such a response shall specify any further information needed by the DOE from the requester, the agency to whom the request has been referred, if any, and the name of the appropriate official of that agency with whom to pursue the matter. The Deputy Administrator or his delegate shall, in cases of denials of requests, determine the official or officials responsible for such denial.

(c) Action pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section shall be taken within 10 days of receipt of a request for DOE records ("receipt" is defined in § 202.3(a)) except that if unusual circumstances require an extension of time before a decision of a request can be reached, and the person requesting records is promptly informed in writing setting forth the reasons for such extension and the date on which a determination is expected to be dispatched, then the Information Access Officer may respond to the request within 15 days of the receipt of the request, or within 20 days of receipt of the request if the Director, Office of Exceptions and Appeals shall concur with such later response. If a response is given by DOE stating that additional information is needed from the requested to render records reasonably described, any reformulated request submitted by the requester shall be treated as an initial request for purposes of time for DOE response.

(d) For purposes of this section and § 202.6(b) the term "unusual circumstances" means:

(1) The need to search for and collect the requested records from field facilities or other establishments that are separate from the office processing the request;

(2) The need to search for, collect and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct

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