Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003 | 9:41 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department may be moving closer to selecting a law firm to review the Yucca Mountain Project license application, but a firm fighting in court to get the contract is not in the running.
Law firms that "expressed interest in being considered in the informal competitive selection process," received a letter from the department with a July 18 deadline to submit qualifying documents. The department's letter, signed by General Counsel Lee Liberman Otis, said it "will need specialized legal services to aid and expedite this unique and important endeavor."
The letter also outlines nine conflicts of interest it advised the firms to disclose when applying, including representing the state of Nevada or any city within the state, representing the department or representing anyone suing the federal government or the department, among others.
The undated letter, obtained by the Sun, noted the department is conducting "informal competitive evaluations of different law firms rather than the more formalized competitive process" set out in federal regulations. It did not give a date for when the final selection would be made.
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is set to be the country's lone repository for spent nuclear fuel. Under law, no other site has been evaluated. The department anticipates submitting its license application in December 2004.
Chicago-based Winston & Strawn withdrew from the $16.5 million review contract in 2001 after the department's inspector general concluded the firm did not tell DOE it had lobbied for the pro-Yucca Nuclear Energy Institute. Winston & Strawn denied any conflict, but resigned anyway. The project has been without a lawyer since.
International law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, which has been battling the department since 1999 for the contract after it lost the bid to Winston & Strawn, did not receive the solicitation letter. Both firms earned a perfect score on the previous bid evaluation for the project, but LeBoeuf's bid was $3.7 million higher.
LeBoeuf sued on conflict-of-interest charges, saying its rival firm should not have been selected since it had previously represented TRW Environmental Safety Services, the former main contractor working on the project.
DOE spokesman Joe Davis said that in May, after the secretary announced the informal selection process, interested firms were told to contact the department, including LeBoeuf.
"They haven't called us, they haven't written us, we don't know whether they are interested or not," Davis said of LeBoeuf. "They only thing they have done is run to court."
Last August a federal district judge ruled in favor of the department but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is set to hear oral arguments in the appeal Sept. 16.
After receiving the a copy of the department's recent solicitation from a third party, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae attorney's filed a letter with the court earlier this month, noting that the firm was unable to prepare and submit the appropriate documents by the July 18 deadline.
"The fact that the letter was not sent to LeBoeuf is the clearest possible evidence LeBoeuf has been disqualified from the contract," the letter states.
Davis replied: "That's ridiculous. We sent them a letter saying who to call. ... The only thing LeBoeuf is complaining about here is the process."
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