The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today sued the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for failing to comply with a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). CEI is asking the court to declare CEI is entitled to the records requested, compel DOE to produce the requested records, and pay for attorney fees.
On May 1, 2017, CEI submitted a FOIA request for documents and information pertaining to a lobbying campaign to make permanent a limited and expiring tax credit, known as 45Q, for capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and other similar sources. A recent Reuters report notes that the biggest beneficiaries of CO2 tax credit schemes, of which 45Q is only one of several, are Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, Fidelity and other such interests.
“After revealing specifics of the records it was processing and when it would comply, the Department of Energy suddenly slammed on the brakes, and has refused to release any of the records it had identified as responsive,” said CEI Senior Fellow Chris Horner. “The program is a consequential one, the campaign to expand it is disturbing, and DoE’s behavior is remarkable. Each of these, alone demand that DoE immediately release this information that belongs to the public.”
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Attached below is the filed complaint.
CEI v DoE Complaint 18-2900 FILED