Freedom of Information Act Request?

Well, there wasn't a lot of information involved and it sure wasn't free...

This was posted by a member in our group last night:

"I have a confession. I was foolish enough to allow myself to be swindled. I was swindled by the U. S. Department of Energy. This swindle involves a Freedom of Information Act request I made to the DOE.

From my FOIA request # HQ-2014-01728-F:

'I am requesting the following materials related to the Management Committee: meeting dates, attendance lists, agendas, minutes, transcripts, and any related documents. I am requesting this material for every meeting of the Management Committee.'

The Management Committee I referred to is described in Section 8a of Contract No. 1 between Clean Line Energy and the DOE, the Advanced Funding and Development Agreement for the Plains and Eastern Clean Line Energy project.

The Agreement can be found on the link:

http://energy.gov/…/Advance%20Funding%20and%20Development%2…

The Management Committee as described was to be composed of two representatives from the DOE and two representatives from Clean Line Energy and was to meet quarterly to discuss:
1. The progress of the NEPA environmental analysis, Clean Line's land acquisition, and the interaction with other state and Federal agencies.
2. The progress of the technical review and proposed procurement, construction, operations, maintenance, ownership roles of each party, and the progress of Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP)'s review under applicable SPP processes.
3. The progress of DOE's review of the Project on issues other than environmental analysis.
4. A comprehensive schedule of work to be completed under this Agreement, including quarterly work plans.

On November 21, I received the results of the DOE's alleged research. It consisted of a series of emails between Clean Line and the DOE arranging the meeting time and details of a single Management Committee meeting in December of 2012.

The DOE response to my request did not contain a single item I requested in the FOIA.

The DOE response raises several questions. Was there only one meeting, in 2012, of the Management Committee? In the 2012 meeting, did the Management Committee discuss any of topics outlined in the Advanced Funding and Development Agreement? If so, where is the documentation requested in the FOIA? If the Management Committee only met once, in 2012, how is Clean Line keeping the DOE apprised of the project status? Is the Advanced Funding and Development Meeting still in effect? Has the Management Committee been circumvented?

I requested a fee waiver when I submitted the FOIA, but my request was denied. The DOE charged $798 in advance for research.

I paid the research fee because I really believed this FOIA request would yield a wealth of information about the working relations between Clean Line and DOE. I guess I should have known the DOE would not allow a lowly citizen to have access to information.

This is a cautionary tale. Do not trust the DOE!"

This is part of the discussion that followed between another member and the original poster:

Commenting Member: Because... "Disclosing this information could cause harm to the DOE and other agencies if the public is able to listen to agency discussions." and "With respect to the discretionary disclosure of deliberative information, the quality of agency decisions would be adversely affected if frank, written discussion of policy matters were inhibited by the knowledge that the content of such discussion might be made public. For this reason, DOE has determined that discretionary disclosure of the deliberative material is not in the public interest because foreseeable harm could result from such disclosure." In other words, YOUR public servants justify that they are allowed to carry on in secrecy with a private company that wants to use the DOE's federal authority to take your property for its own private profit. Any affected landowner who tries to get information is punished with unreasonable fees to discourage further prying. Isn't the DOE taking enough from Original poster's name without this added insult? Better believe the founding fathers are spinning!

Original Poster: Yes it was about a dozen pages. Some of the pages were nearly blank. Just copies of emails. Most of them containing one or two sentences. No, I did not receive an invoice or receipt.

Yikes...