February 26, 2003—The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has finalized a plan to protect the American public by safeguarding certain information about the nation’s energy infrastructure. Within a month of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Commission began a public proceeding to examine its critical energy infrastructure information (CEII) policies.
The final rule generally follows the outline of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) issued last September and continues current practice. It defines CEII and establishes a timely procedure for the public to request and obtain such information, which encompasses only a very small portion of information available from the Commission. To qualify as CEII, information must relate to critical infrastructure, be potentially useful to terrorists, and be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Information that identifies the location of infrastructure is not considered to be CEII.
The Commission said it would release project location information needed by parties participating in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, while protecting more detailed information not typically needed by those participating in the NEPA process. The rule gives specific examples of protected and unprotected information.
The final rule defines critical infrastructure as “existing and proposed systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, the incapacity or destruction of which would negatively affect security, economic security, public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.”
