AGENCY: Office of Hearings and Appeals, Department of Energy
ACTION: Notice of final deadline for crude oil overcharge refund recipients to request the $.0008 per gallon supplemental refund first announced in 1995 in the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding (RF272 Case Nos.).
SUMMARY: The Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Department of Energy has set a January 31, 2000 deadline for requesting the $.0008 per gallon supplemental refund first announced in 1995 in the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding. The deadline applies to all refund recipients eligible for a supplemental refund of $50 or more. Those refund recipients that do not request a supplemental refund by the deadline will forfeit the supplemental refund and any further payment from crude oil overcharge funds. Small refund recipients, i.e., those eligible for a supplemental refund less than $50, continue to have the option of requesting a supplemental refund until the conclusion of the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas L. Wieker, Deputy Director, or Janet N. Freimuth, Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20585-0107, telephone number 202-426-1527, FAX 202-426-1415.
The Department of Energy’s crude oil overcharge refund proceeding began over twelve years ago. In August 1986, the DOE announced its policy concerning the administration of a proceeding to refund crude oil overcharge funds to injured purchasers of refined petroleum products. See 51 Fed. Reg. 27,899 (August 4, 1986) (Modified Statement of Restitutionary Policy in Crude Oil Cases (MSRP)). That same month, the first crude oil refund application was filed. Pursuant to the MSRP, the OHA announced, in April 1987, that it would use the refund procedures at 10 C.F.R. Part 205, Subpart V, to process crude oil refund applications. 52 Fed. Reg. 11,737 (1987). The OHA accepted crude oil refund applications until the June 1995 deadline.
As the OHA has conducted the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding, the DOE has continued to collect additional overcharge funds. Under the MSRP, up to 20 percent of crude oil overcharge funds are reserved for direct refunds to claimants through the OHA pursuant to Subpart V. The remaining 80 percent is divided equally between the federal government (40 percent) and the states (40 percent) for indirect restitution. Because of the potential availability of additional funds, the OHA decisions approving refund applications advise the refund recipient to inform the OHA of any change of address.
The amount of a refund is based on the refund recipient’s volume of refined petroleum product purchases, multiplied by a per gallon refund amount, referred to as the “volumetric refund amount” or simply the “volumetric.” The larger a firm’s or individual’s purchases, the greater the injury from crude oil overcharges and therefore the greater the refund. As the DOE has collected additional crude oil overcharge funds, the OHA has raised the volumetric. The OHA originally paid crude oil overcharge refund recipients at a rate of $.0002 per gallon. The OHA has raised the volumetric twice. First, in 1989, the OHA raised the volumetric to $.0008 per gallon; the OHA sent a supplemental payment of $.0006 per gallon to those refund recipients that had been paid at the $.0002 rate. See Crude Oil Supplemental Refund Distribution, 18 DOE ¶ 85,878 (1989). Second, in 1995, the OHA raised the volumetric to $.0016 per gallon; the OHA notified refund recipients that had been paid at the $.0008 per gallon volumetric of the availability of a $.0008 supplemental payment. See 60 Fed. Reg. 15562 (March 24, 1995).
The OHA’s 1995 notice advised refund recipients that if they wished to receive a supplemental payment at that time, they should verify to the OHA that certain information was still correct, such as their address. The 1995 notice stated that refund recipients could wait until the end of the proceeding to receive their supplemental payment, as well as any final payment that might be made.
The OHA mailed the 1995 notice to over 56,000 refund recipients that had filed directly with the OHA for their original refund, i.e., refund recipients that did not file through a representative. The mailing went to each such recipient whose supplemental refund would be $50 or more, i.e., refund recipients with approved purchases of 62,500 gallons or more. Although the OHA did not mail to small refund recipients, i.e., those entitled to less than $50, the OHA stated that those refund recipients could request a supplemental refund. In addition to the mailing to the over 56,000 recipients that did not file through a representative, the OHA mailed a notice to the representatives of an additional 12,000 refund recipients.
Since 1995, the OHA has granted supplemental refunds totaling $268 million to 56,000 recipients. At the same time, the OHA has almost completed its consideration of the original crude oil overcharge refund applications. The OHA has granted a total of $597 million to 91,500 recipients. Of the total 100,000 applications filed, only 1,000 remain pending.
The OHA has now determined that a January 31, 2000 deadline for requesting the $.0008 per gallon supplemental refund announced in 1995 should be set for refund recipients whose supplemental refund would be $50 or more, i.e., refund recipients with approved purchases of 62,500 gallons or more. Both administrative efficiency and the goal of achieving finality in the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding warrant establishing the deadline. Over the last four years, the OHA has granted supplemental refunds to 56,000 applicants, representing 335 million gallons of approved purchases. A deadline for requesting a supplemental refund is a necessary, interim step to the completion of the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding, which has been pending over 12 years. In order to make any final payment in the proceeding, we need to determine the number of eligible recipients and the total amount available after current supplemental payments are made. When we issued original refund decisions, we advised refund recipients to keep us informed of address changes, but some refund recipients failed to do so. We are concerned that the addresses and other information for the refund recipients that did not request a supplemental payment may not be current. For example, the recipient may have a new address or the recipient may no longer exist - an individual applicant may have died or a business entity may have ceased operations. Setting a deadline for all supplemental payments will allow us to identify those recipients that are either unreachable or that are not interested in receiving a supplemental refund. Those recipients will forfeit any further refund, which will then allow us to calculate a final payment for all remaining recipients, provided sufficient crude oil overcharge funds are left over.
Based on the foregoing, we intend to mail notice of a January 31, 2000 deadline to the 10,000 refund recipients with approved purchases of 62,500 gallons or more that have not yet requested a supplemental refund. As stated above, a refund recipient with approved purchases of 62,500 gallons or more that does not request a supplemental refund by January 31, 2000 will not be eligible for any further payment from crude oil overcharge funds. The deadline does not apply to small refund recipients, i.e., those with approved purchases of less than 62,500 gallons. We have concluded that mailing notice to such refund recipients is not appropriate, given the small size of the refund (less than $50) and the age of the addresses in our data base. Small refund recipients continue to have the option of requesting a supplemental refund until the conclusion of the crude oil overcharge refund proceeding.
Date: April 15, 1999
George B. Breznay
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals
Department of Energy
Washington, DC 20585