FIA-21-0002 - In the Matter of Nancy Milburn

On December 11, 2020, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) granted the Freedom of Information (FOIA) Appeal filed by Ms. Nancy Milburn  of  Arnold  &  Porter  Kaye  Scholer, LLP (Arnold & Porter) from a  final  determination  issued  by  the  Department  of  Energy's  office of Public Information  (OPI). On Appeal, in addition to taking issue with the adequacy of the final determination letter, the Appellant alleged that the agency had failed to conduct an adequate search  for  responsive  records.  An  examination  of  the  search  certificate  revealed  that on October 24, 2020,  FE  conducted  automated  and  manual  searches  for  annual  reports  on the Petroleum Reserves Website, for annual reports kept in the file room, and for annual   reports located in the "O drive." Only request A of the Appellant's amended FOIA request  pertained to annual reports, and there was nothing in the search certificate that indicated FE searched for responsive documents outside of the annual reports that  were  sought  after  in  request A. OHA could not verify how searches were conducted for responsive  documents  pursuant to requests B through I of the Appellant's amended FOIA Request and whether the searches were reasonably calculated to uncover  responsive  documents.  The  matter  was remanded back to OPI so that the requested search can be conducted pursuant to the scope established by the Appellant's  amended  FOIA  request.  OHA  Case  No.  FIA-21-0002