Case No. RK272-05647

February 29, 2000

DECISION AND ORDER

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Supplemental Order

Names of Petitioners: Gabriel J. Richards

Ernest W.B. Wells

John B. Paulsen

Date of Filing: January 31, 2000

Case Numbers: RK272-05647

RK272-05648

RK272-05649

Pursuant to the long-standing policy of the Department of Energy (DOE), thousands of purchasers of petroleum products have applied for, and been granted, refunds from crude oil overcharge funds under jurisdiction of the DOE's Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA). See Statement of Modified Restitutionary Policy To Be Implemented In Crude Oil Cases, 51 Fed. Reg. 27899 (August 4, 1986). The standards for considering Applications for Refund from these crude oil funds are set forth at 10 C.F.R. Part 205, Subpart V.

The OHA has approved more than 87,000 requests for refund from the pool of crude oil overcharge funds. In Subpart V crude oil refund cases, a claimant is generally eligible for a refund equal to the number of gallons of eligible refined petroleum products it purchased during the period from August 19, 1973 through January 27, 1981, multiplied by a per gallon amount. That per gallon refund amount is derived by dividing the total refund monies available by the total U.S. consumption of petroleum products during the crude oil price control period. Refunds had been calculated by multiplying the number of gallons of eligible refined petroleum products purchased by the applicant by $0.0008 (the volumetric factor). That volumetric factor had been in use since April 1989, when it replaced an earlier volumetric factor of $0.0002 per gallon. Any applicant who received a refund at the lower volumetric factor has also received a supplemental refund based on an additional $0.0006 per gallon. See Crude Oil Supplemental Refund Distribution, 18 DOE ¶ 85,878 (1989).

Additional crude oil overcharge funds have become available for disbursement and we can now issue additional refund checks to applicants. Sufficient funds are available to pay applicants at a new,

aggregate rate of $0.0016 per gallon.(1) Thus, the amount of the supplemental refund will be equal to the refund already received. Refunds are rounded to the nearest dollar.

In order to receive a supplemental refund check, applicants are being required to verify (directly or through their representatives) that their name and address in our records are correct, to correct any information that is not accurate, and to indicate whether there has been any change in circumstances affecting the payment of the refund. Since 1995, we have issued a series of Decision and Orders approving supplemental refunds as we received completed verification forms from all applicants or certifications from their representatives. Last year, we announced a deadline of January 31, 2000 for all applicants entitled to a supplemental refund of $50 or more to submit completed verification forms. 64 Fed. Reg. 19,998 (April 23, 1999).

This Decision and Order involves three requests for portions of the supplemental refund for Cann & Saul Steel Co. (Cann & Saul), Case No. RF272-53555. These three claimants state that they were shareholders at the time the company dissolved in 1988, and therefore are entitled to a supplemental refund. Therefore, each claimant was assigned a separate RK272- case number, RK272-05647, RK272-05648 and RK272-05649. If granted, the approved volume claim would be allocated to each claimant based upon the percentage of his ownership interest in Cann & Saul. In this case, the claimants claimed to own shares of Cann & Saul of 15, 18 and 20 percent respectively. If found to be entitled, the claimants would accordingly receive refunds of $1,261, $1,513 and $1,681.

Because under Subpart V this Office has a duty to determine that claimants are entitled to receive refunds, we inquired as to whether the claimants had any documentation of their ownership percentage at the time of dissolution. One claimant, Gabriel J. Richards, told this Office that he had spoken with the other two claimants about this question and that none of them possess any such documentation. In fact, the only documentation any of them possess showing any connection to Cann & Saul concerns the pension the three men receive from their former employment by that firm. See Record of Telephone Conversation between Gabriel J. Richards and Dawn L. Goldstein, Staff Attorney, Office of Hearings and Appeals (February 25, 2000).

We do not consider this evidence to sufficiently demonstrate that the claimants were owners of Cann & Saul at the time of dissolution and are entitled to supplemental refunds. Obviously, not all former employees of firms hold ownership interests in those firms. Thus, the pension documents does not demonstrate the claimants had an ownership interst in the firm. No other indicia of possible ownership are present here. Thus, we find that these three applications for supplemental refund should be denied.

It Is Therefore Ordered That:

(1) The Application for Supplemental Refund for Case No. RF272-53555 filed by Gabriel J. Richards, Case No. RK272-05647, is hereby denied.

(2) The Application for Supplemental Refund for Case No. RF272-53555 filed by Ernest W.B. Wells, Case No. RK272-05648, is hereby denied.

(3) The Application for Supplemental Refund for Case No. RF272-53555 filed by John B. Paulsen, Case No. RK272-05649, is hereby denied.

(4) This is a final Order of the Department of Energy.

George B. Breznay

Director

Office of Hearings and Appeals

Date:February 29, 2000

(1)We are now paying first-time crude oil refund recipients at the volumetric rate of $0.0016 per gallon.