Department of Energy wants cash for data

By The Associated Press

12.26.02

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy wants to charge an environmental group for documents it has requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Citizen Action has requested information about DOE's nuclear operations.

The department wants to charge the group $3,200 to cover the expense of searching government files for documents about possible dumping of nuclear waste in a Sandia National Laboratories landfill.

The search will not begin until the group makes a $600 down payment, according to a letter from DOE to the group.

Activists see the move to charge them as a way for DOE to block their efforts to obtain information.

"DOE should provide this information free of charge to the public," said Sue Dayton of Citizen Action. Her group is appealing the decision.

Department officials say they are trying to enforce regulations that allow them to charge for work.

"We have been adhering more strictly to the fee regulations during the last couple of years," said Terry Apodaca, who handles Freedom of Information Act requests for the DOE's Albuquerque office.

"This helps us keep scores of FOIA requests more manageable, which also helps our plants and laboratories from being 'shut down' to process these enormous requests," Apodaca wrote in an e-mail response to an inquiry from the Albuquerque Journal.

Citizen Action has made previous requests that were processed without a fee, Dayton said.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the government is supposed to charge for the cost of researching and copying records. However, the law allows fees to be reduced or waived for news media and others who make a request that is "in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the Government."

DOE said in a Dec. 5 letter that Citizen Action's "record of providing documents and information to the public" entitled it to a discount. The fee was reduced from $4,700 to $3,200.