[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 231 (Friday, November 29, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60698-60700]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-30450]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Notice of Issuance of Decisions and Orders; Week of September 30 
Through October 4, 1996

    During the week of September 30 through October 4, 1996, 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, DC 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

[[Page 60699]]

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: November 20, 1996.
George B. Breznay,
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Decision List No. 1

Week of September 30 Through October 4, 1996

Appeals

Harold Bibeau, 10/4/96, VFA-0212

    Harold Bibeau filed an Appeal from a determination issued to him by 
the Oak Ridge Operations Office (DOE/OR). In his Appeal, Mr. Bibeau 
asserted that DOE/OR improperly failed to provide him with documents 
regarding human radiation or hormone experiments he had requested 
pursuant to the FOIA. During the pendency of the Appeal, several 
potentially responsive documents were discovered by DOE/OR. 
Consequently, the DOE remanded the matter to DOE/OR for a determination 
regarding the newly discovered documents.

James H. Stebbings, 9/30/96, VFA-0211

    James Stebbings (Stebbings) filed an Appeal from a partial denial 
by the Department of Energy's Argonne Group (Argonne) of a request for 
information which was submitted under the Freedom of Information Act. 
Stebbings appealed the adequacy of Argonne's search. The DOE found that 
Argonne had conducted a search reasonably calculated to uncover 
responsive material. Because the requester could not provide any 
information that further records existed, the Appeal was denied.

Personnel Security Hearing

Albuquerque Operations Office, 10/4/96, VSO-0104

    A Hearing Officer issued an Opinion regarding the eligibility of an 
individual for access authorization under the provisions of 10 CFR Part 
710. The Hearing Officer found that: (i) the individual has a mental 
condition, substance abuse, which causes, or may cause a significant 
defect in judgment or reliability; (ii) the individual has a long 
history of abuse of illegal drugs; (iii) the individual provided false 
information to the DOE; (iv) the acts of the individual tend to show 
that he is not honest, reliable, or trustworthy; and (iv) the DOE's 
security concerns were not overcome by evidence mitigating these 
concerns. Accordingly, the Hearing Officer found that the individual 
should not be granted an access authorization.

Whistleblower Proceeding

Richard W. Gallegos, 10/4/96, VWA-0004

    Richard W. Gallegos claimed that he was retaliated against by 
Sandia National Laboratory for making disclosures during a five-year 
period about mismanagement at the Lab. An Office of Hearings and 
Appeals Hearing Officer concluded that Mr. Gallegos had not shown by a 
preponderance of the evidence that he made disclosures that are 
protected by the DOE's Contractor Employee Protection Program, or that, 
if they were protected disclosures, they contributed to adverse actions 
taken against him after October 1, 1993, the date on which employees at 
Sandia became covered by the Contractor Employee Protection Program. 
The request for relief filed by Mr. Gallegos was accordingly denied.

Refund Applications

Burt County Cooperative, et al., 10/1/96, RR272-218 et al.

    The DOE denied the Motions for Reconsideration filed by the 
National Bank for Cooperatives (CoBank) on behalf of seven cooperatives 
that purchased refined petroleum products during the refund period. 
CoBank failed to present reasons sufficient to warrant modification of 
our July 28, 1994 Decision and Order, since it could not certify that 
it would pass through, in full, any refund to the members of the seven 
cooperatives. Consequently, there was no assurance that the refunds 
would go to people who were actually injured by the overcharges.

Texaco, Inc./Fairpark Grocery, 10/2/96, RF321-21088

    The Department of Energy rescinded a refund that was granted to 
Fairpark Grocery because the check was not presented for payment and 
the owner of the outlet could not be located. The DOE, therefore, 
directed that the refund be redeposited into the Texaco escrow account.

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.

                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                
Artcraft Industries, Inc, et al..........................  RF272-97802                                   10/2/96
Edmonds School District No. 15, Vicentian Sisters of       RF272-97928                                   10/2/96
 Charity.                                                  RF272-97935                                          
Inter-State Hardwoods Co., Inc., et al...................  RF272-90296                                   10/4/96
Louisiana Land & Exploration Co..........................  RF272-98207                                   10/1/96
Western AG-Minerals Co...................................  RK272-3911                                    10/2/96
                                                                                                                

Dismissals

    The following submissions were dismissed.

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                     Name                               Case No.        
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Albuquerque Operations Office................  VSO-0111                 
Channel Flying, Inc..........................  RF272-98008              
Collinson, Inc...............................  RF272-99126              
Hillin Production Company....................  RF272-99129              
Irving N. Loomis & Sons, Inc.................  RF272-99125              
Lyondell Petrochemical Co....................  RR272-239                
Petro San Juan...............................  VEE-0029                 
Reuben Johnson & Son, Inc....................  RF272-99127              
St. Anne's Hospital..........................  RG272-737                
T. A. Loving Company.........................  RF272-99116              
Town of East Greenwich.......................  RG272-740                
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[FR Doc. 96-30450 Filed 11-27-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P