Case No. RF272-98607
October 16, 1997
DECISION AND ORDER
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Applications for Refund
Names of Petitioners: Erie Materials, Inc. et al.
Dates of Filing: July 5, 1994 et al.
Case Numbers: RF272-98607 et al.
This Decision and Order will consider Applications for Refund that were submitted by seven claimants who purchased refined petroleum products in the United States from August 19, 1973, through January 27, 1981 (the crude oil price control period). The applicants have requested refunds from crude oil monies available for disbursement by the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) of the Department of Energy (DOE) pursuant to the OHA's authority under 10 C.F.R. Part 205, Subpart V. The names of the applicants and the amounts of refined petroleum products that they purchased are set forth in the appendix to this Decision.
This refund proceeding was instituted to allow purchasers of refined petroleum products during the price control period to apply to the OHA for a refund from crude oil overcharge funds collected by the DOE. Statement of Modified Restitutionary Policy in Crude Oil Cases, 51 Fed. Reg. 27899 (August 4, 1986). We have established refund procedures for these funds, which have been made available through consent orders entered into by the DOE and numerous firms that sold crude oil during the crude oil price control period. E.g., Berry Holding Co., 16 DOE ¶ 85,405 (1987); A. Tarricone, Inc., 15 DOE ¶ 85,495 (1987); Mountain Fuel Supply Co., 14 DOE ¶ 85,475 (1986).
The refund procedures set forth in these cases specify that in order to receive a refund, an applicant generally must (1) document its purchase volumes and (2) show that it was injured by alleged crude oil overcharges. However, as we discussed in City of Columbus, Georgia, 16 DOE ¶ 85,550 (1987), applicants who were end- users of petroleum products and whose businesses were not covered by the DOE's or its predecessors' price controls are presumed to have been injured.
Generally, a claimant is eligible for a refund equal to the number of gallons it purchased multiplied by $0.0016. We derived this volumetric refund amount by dividing the total crude oil refund monies currently available by the total U.S. consumption of petroleum products during the period of crude oil price controls (2,020,997,335,000 gallons).
Each applicant seeks a refund based on its estimated purchases of refined petroleum products during the refund period. (1) Six of the applicants gallonage claims are based on contemporaneously maintained records, and extrapolations from those records for periods of time for which no actual purchase data was available. The seventh applicant, Dafra-Lines, is a maritime shipping company, which estimated its gallonage claim by multiplying its average daily usage of petroleum products by the number of days that its vessels spent at sea. In each instance, we have examined the information submitted and we conclude that the estimation techniques used are reasonable and that the volumes claimed reflect accurately the applicants purchases. We will therefore approve these gallonage claims.
Each applicant purchased its refined petroleum products for use in a business that is unrelated to the petroleum industry and did not resell those products. The applicants are therefore end-users of refined petroleum products and are presumed to have been injured by the crude oil overcharges. Accordingly, the applicants are entitled to receive their full allocable shares of the crude oil monies.
The refund amount granted to each applicant is set forth in the appendix to this Decision and Order. The total volume approved in this Decision is 139,472,518 gallons of refined petroleum products, and the total of the refunds granted is $223,157.
The final deadline for applications in the crude oil refund proceeding was June 30, 1995. It is the current policy of the DOE to pay eligible crude oil refund claimants at the rate of $0.0016 per gallon. We will decide whether sufficient crude oil overcharge funds are available for additional refunds for these applicants and other successful applicants when we are better able to determine how much additional money will be collected from firms that have either outstanding obligations to the DOE or enforcement cases currently in litigation.
It Is Therefore Ordered That:
(1) The Applications for Refund filed by the claimants listed in the appendix to this Decision for all available crude oil overcharge funds are hereby approved as set forth in Paragraph (2) below.
(2) The Director of Special Accounts and Payroll, Office of Departmental Accounting and Financial Systems Development, Office of the Controller of the Department of Energy, shall take appropriate action to disburse refunds totaling $223,157 from the DOE deposit fund escrow account denominated Crude Tracking - Claimants 4, Account Number 999DOE010Z, maintained at the Department of the Treasury, to the applicants set forth in the appendix to this Decision.
(3) To facilitate the payment of any future refunds, the applicants shall notify the Office of Hearings and Appeals in the event that there is a change of address, or if an address correction is necessary. Such notification shall be sent to:
Director of Management Information
Office of Hearings and Appeals
Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20585-0107
(4) The determinations made in this Decision and Order are based upon the presumed validity of the statements and documentary materials submitted by the applicants. These determinations may be revoked or modified at any time upon a finding that the basis underlying any refund application is incorrect.
(5) This is a final Order of the Department of Energy.
George B. Breznay
Director
Office of Hearings and Appeals
Date: October 16, 1997
APPENDIX
APPLICANT PAYEE AND
AND CASE NO. ADDRESS VOLUME REFUND
RF272-98607
Erie Materials, Erie Materials, 25,438,860 $40,702
Inc. Inc.
P.O. Box 2308
Sandusky, OH 44870
RF272-98618
Hot-Mix Asphalt Hot-Mix Asphalt 21,453,497 34,326
Inc. Inc.
P.O. Box 8327
Laurel, MS 39441-8327
RF272-98629
Mattes Bros. Mattes Bros. 5,849,625 9,359
Const. Co. Const. Co.
Rt. 3, Box 475
Joplin, MO 64801
RF272-98644
S.T. Bunn Const. S.T. Bunn 56,369,155 90,191
Co., Inc. Const. Co., Inc.
5453 Jug Factory
Road
Tuscaloosa, AL 35405
RF272-98688
White Construction White Const. 22,243,636 35,590
Co. Inc. Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 790
Chiefland, FL 32693
RG272-411
Dafra-Lines AS Dafra-Lines AS 7,618,055 12,189 or Wilson, Keller
& Associates
P.O. Box 221145
Memphis, TN 38122
RG272-1077
Midwest Fence Midwest Fence 499,690 800
Corp. Corp. or
American Road &
Transportation
Builders Assoc.
1010 Mass. Ave.,
N.W., 6th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20001
_________________________________________________________________
TOTALS 7 139,472,518 $223,157
(1)Interested parties were provided with an opportunity to submit comments regarding individual crude oil refund applications. No such comments were filed with respect to the applications considered in this Decision.