[NB: FOIA Advisor previously reported the issuance of the opinion discussed in this article earlier this week.]
9th Circ. Revives FOIA Suit For Federal Power Agency Docs
Keith Goldberg, Law360, May 25, 2018
The Ninth Circuit on Friday revived an environmental group's Freedom of Information Act suit seeking information from the Bonneville Power Administration, reversing a lower court's conclusion that the group lacked standing because it didn't clearly identify itself as the one filing the original FOIA request.
A Washington federal judge in March 2016 dismissed the suit lodged by the group A Better Way for BPA against the BPA — a U.S. Department of Energy power marketing administration that ships hydropower from federally owned dams to utilities and rural electric cooperatives in the Northwest — over its delay in turning over documents relating to a since-abandoned transmission project.
But a Ninth Circuit panel disagreed with U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton's conclusion that the group lacked standing to bring the suit because the FOIA request was filled out by group member Cheryl Brantley in an individual capacity, and she didn't adequately indicate that it was the group making the request.
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