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FIA-12-0037 - In the Matter of National Security Archive

the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) Director denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Appeal filed by the National Security Archive (Appellant).  The DOE’s Office of Information Resources (OIR) did not locate any documents responsive to the Appellant’s request.  The Appellant requested documents related to the Tianjin Climate Change Talks held October 4 to 9, 2010.  The Appellant listed three DOE official who it alleged participated in the conference, Casey Delhotal, Richard Duke, and Elmer Holt.  Dr. Delhotal and Mr. Duke indicated that although they were in Tianjin during the conference, they were there to talk to the National Development Reform Commission, who hosted the Tianjin conference, about Clean Energy Ministerial initiatives, a program completely separate from the United Nations Framework Commission on Climate Change conference.  They were not part of the official US negotiating team.  Mr. Holt indicated that he searched his work email account, documents stored on his computer and hard copy files, papers, and notes in his possession but did not find anything responsive.  He did not search the Washington Federal Records Center because he has never forwarded any documents there.  OHA found that OIR conducted a search reasonably calculated to uncover responsive information.  Based on those finding, OHA denied the Appeal.