CEI v. EPA Region 9 – May 2 Complaint

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1) This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to compel production under one request for certain EPA records reflecting the conduct of or otherwise relating to agency business.

2) In a FOIA request sent electronically on February 26, 2013, CEI sought certain described records, email sent to or from a specifically identified non-official email account that EPA Region 9 Administrator Jared Blumenfeld uses to correspond on EPA-related issues, in addition to his EPA-provided email account on which law and regulation require him to conduct all such correspondence

3) Defendant has not responded in any way to Plaintiff’s request submitted electronically more than two months ago.

4) In the face of increasing revelations about senior employees throughout the federal government turning to private email accounts to conduct official business and otherwise engage in work-related correspondence, circumventing the requirements of statutory and regulatory record-creating and record-keeping regimes, EPA refuses to comply with its FOIA obligations in the present matter.