[NukeNet] Articles on our Green Bid protest

[Marylia Kelley]

Greetings. Here are four of the stories that have appeared since we filed
our protest on January 17th over the Dept. of Energy NNSA's handling of our
"green bid" for Livermore Lab management. They are: KPFA News, the Contra
Costa Times, the Independent and the New Standard. Also running stories but
not copied here are the Tri-Valley Herald, Oakland Tribune and several
other major Bay Area outlets. (Due to the big MediaNews buyout, they all
ran the same story as the Contra Costa Times newspapers.) In addition, I
did interviews with Inside Energy and the Tracy Press. I haven't seen
Inside Energy yet, and the Tracy Press is running it next week. I'll keep
you posted. And, may the light continue to shine on alternative futures for
Livermore Lab.

--Marylia

Green Company bids to Manage Lawrence Livermore Labs
by Christina Aanestad
Wednesday Jan 17th, 2007
KPFA News/posted to the Independent Media Center

Livermore Labs GREEN, a consortium of environmental and social justice
groups filed a formal complaint with the National Nuclear Security
Administration today, alleging the agency wrongfully rejected it's bid to
manage the Livermore National Laboratory. Livermore Labs GREEN claims its
bid to manage the nuclear weapons research facility was rejected because of
misinformation and its environmentally friendly vision for the labs.

audio: 1-17nnsa.mp3
MP3 at 3.4 MB

Imagine the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as a hub for
alternative energy and global warming research-a lab that plans to phase
out plutonium and nuclear research. That's what Livermore Labs GREEN LLC is
proposing to do in its bid to manage the Lawrence Livermore Labs, one of
the nations two nuclear research facilities. Marylia Kelley is executive
director of Tri Valley Cares and a founder of Livermore Labs GREEN LLC.

"About 85% of the Livermore Labs budget goes to nuclear research and
development. This means nuclear proliferation worldwide. This means nuclear
and toxic pollution, here in our communities. We proposed to move all the
plutonium and highly enriched uranium out of the labs within 4 years and to
transition all of the classified nuclear weapons work out with in 5 years.
We would also make Livermore labs a center for the development of
alternative non-polluting energy and we'd make it a center for developing
new clean- up technologies fort toxic and radio active waste."

Last year the National Nuclear Security Administration or NNSA announced
open bids to manage the Livermore National Labs. So, anti-nuclear
proliferation and social justice groups formed a corporation called
Livermore Lab's GREEN, LLC, to bid on the labs' management. But the NNSA
rejected its bid. Kelley believes the bid was rejected because it went
against the Department of Energy's nuclear policy. The NNSA maintains GREEN
LLC's bid was rejected because it did not contain all the necessary
paperwork.

Julieanne Smith spokesperson for the NNSA says the bids are confidential.
"This is a procurement issue. Which means that ah, there are certain
privacy issues certain laws we need to follow. And that isn't something
that we could release. We can't even talk about how many people have
submitted bids and who they are and what was in their bids. That's
inappropriate and not something we would do."

According to Kelley the two other contenders for the labs management are
the UC-Bechtel partnership which manages the Los Alamos Labs and Northrup
Grummond a military defense contractor. Livermore Labs GREEN LLC is
challenging the NNSA's rejection and asking the national nuclear agency to
reinstate them as active bidders for the Livermore Labs management. Kelley
says the NNSA's allegations are false.

"The department of energy treated our bid very differently than it treated
the bid from UC Bechtel and the bid from Northrup Grummond. For example, in
their rejection document the Department of Energy claimed that there were
things missing from the bid package that simply weren't missing. All you
had to do was look and they were there."

Livermore Labs GREEN consists of four groups, Tri Valley Cares, the Nuclear
Watch of New Mexico, New College of California, and Wind Miller Energy, a
green energy company. The management contracts last for 7 years. If denied
the right to bid on this year's contract, Kelley says they may bid again,
but, this years bid is to show the viable alternatives to nuclear research
and development. Kelley is challenging the winning bidder to follow suit.

(c) 2000-2007 SF Bay Area Independent Media Center.
###

'Green' groups contend lab bid treated unfairly
Complaint describes 'improper and biased handling' of proposal
By Sam Richards
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Wed, Jan. 17, 2007

A team of organizations that includes a Livermore-based watchdog group
filed a formal protest Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Energy claiming
"improper and biased handling" of their bid to manage Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory.

The proposal was submitted by GREEN LLC and led by the weapons-lab watchdog
groups Livermore-based Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive
Environment and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico. They claim their bid was
rejected without proper consideration by DOE's National Nuclear Security
Administration on grounds that were "factually incorrect, unsubstantiated,
biased and prejudicial, contrary to regulations and/or easily corrected."

Also submitting bids in October to operate the Livermore lab were teams led
by the University of California and Bechtel National and another led by
defense contractor Northrop Grumman.

The GREEN LLC group asserts its operations bid was not treated the same as
the other two bids, and that instead NNSA officials "acted in a biased and
prejudicial manner" in dismissing its proposal.

The GREEN LLC group seeks reinstatement as an active competitor for the
lab's management contract as well as suspension of the NNSA's procurement
process until the GREEN LLC group is restored as an equal bidder.

Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, said in October
that her group never expected the Energy Department to choose the GREEN LLC
bid, but she said the bid was strong. She reiterated that thought Tuesday.

"It's not that our bid isn't taken seriously. ... But there's a
philosophical and political difference of opinion with the (NNSA) as to the
mission of the lab," Kelley said.

NNSA spokespeople in Livermore could not be reached for comment late
Tuesday afternoon about the protest.

UC has managed the lab since its inception.

A new operating contract for Lawrence Livermore is expected to be awarded
this year.

 (c) 2007 ContraCostaTimes.com and wire service sources.
All Rights Reserved.
http://www.contracostatimes.com
###

The Independent Newspaper
(Livermore, Pleasanton, Sunol)
January 18, 2007
From staff reports

Group Files Protest Over Bid Rejection

A team of organizations seeking to transform the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (LLNL) into an environmental research facility, on
Tuesday, filed a formal protest with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
for denying its management proposal. The fourteen-page document claims
"improper and biased handling" of the group's bid.

Livermore Lab GREEN, LLC charges that DOE's National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) acted improperly in rejecting the bid on grounds that
they were "factually incorrect, unsubstantiated, biased and prejudicial,
contrary to regulations and/or easily corrected." The bidders seek legal
relief in the form of "reinstatement" as an active competitor for the LLNL
contract. The protest also requests a suspension of the NNSA's procurement
process until the group is put back on equitable footing with other
bidders. The protest was filed under provisions of Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR).

The protest charges the NNSA:

o Made factually-incorrect assertions in its grounds for rejecting the bid,
including the claim that information was missing from the bid package when
it was there.

o Made unsubstantiated allegations in its basis for rejecting the bid,
including allegations that the bid would "inhibit NNSA from complying with
the law" even though the bid closely aligned with congressional directives
to remove weapons-usable plutonium from Livermore Lab before 2014.

o Acted in a biased and prejudicial manner in its rejection of the bid by
treating the Livermore Lab GREEN, LLC and its proposal differently than it
treated competitors.

o Used grounds in rejecting the bid that could easily have been corrected
under the provisions of FAR, for example by rejecting the group's proposal
because it provided the managing entity's board of directors list but not
the lists for other partners.

The group also cited congressional disapproval of the NNSA's Livermore Lab
bidding process. The GREEN LLC's protest includes Representative David
Hobson's letter late last year as Chairman of the House Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Subcommittee. Hobson wrote: "In mandating
competition, it was the intent of Congress to attract the widest possible
group of interested bidders... The Department of Energy has resisted moving
in the direction of fair and open competitive processes. Unfortunately, the
Department has telegraphed to the contractor community that innovative
ideas and concepts would not be favorably received."

Under the Federal Acquisition Regulations, NNSA is required to provide for
inexpensive, procedurally simple and expeditious resolution of the
Livermore Lab GREEN, LLC protest. This process can include alternative
dispute resolution, third party review and use of other agency's personnel.

(c) Independent Newspaper, www.indenpendent news.com

###

Feds 'Biased' Against 'Green' Plan for Nuke Weapons Lab

by Catherine Komp
NewStandard

Jan. 18 - A coalition opposed to nuclear weapons is fighting the federal
government over rejection of its bid to turn a national laboratory that
engages in nuclear-arms research into an environmental science center.

The US Department of Energy is considering bids to manage and operate the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California.
This is the first time the federal government has initiated a competitive
bid to run the $1.6 billion dollar "national interest" research facility
since its creation in 1952. The current contract with the University of
California, which has run the lab since its inception, expires in September
2007.

But groups opposed to nuclear weapons have a different vision for the
Livermore Lab, which focuses largely on war-related research, and they have
banded together to turn it into a "world class center for civilian science"
within five years.

The coalition, Livermore Lab Green Renewable Energy and Environmental Nexus
(GREEN), is made up of two nuclear-watchdog groups - Tri-Valley Communities
Against a Radioactive Environment and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico - as well
as the New College of California, and the renewable-energy firm WindMiller
Energy.

In its proposal submitted last October, GREEN said its plan discouraged
nuclear proliferation, provided energy independence through sustainable
sources, and addressed national-security goals.

"We propose to phase out the Lab's nuclear weapons programs over time, and
to subordinate them under a new Associate Directorship of Nuclear
Nonproliferation in the interim," wrote GREEN in its proposal. "We will
direct science toward resolution of long-term national-security needs such
as energy independence, conservation, environmental remediation and related
technologies, and understanding and addressing global climate change."

But the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA) rejected the bid in December, stating it found GREEN's proposal
"grossly and obviously deficient." The NNSA said GREEN did not "demonstrate
an understanding of the requirements of the solicitation."

In the NNSA's request for proposals, it stated the chosen contractor would
need to take measures that "result in improvements in performance of the
Nuclear Weapons Complex" and "strengthen the Laboratory's role as an
important element in the nuclear weapons complex supply-chain."

But GREEN argues its proposal would support US obligations under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NNSA itself began reducing plutonium
and highly enriched uranium from Livermore last month, stating it would
remove nearly all of it by 2014.

The group says the Department of Energy has unfairly eliminated it from the
competition because NNSA officials objected to its non-nuclear agenda for
the facility. In a letter of protest sent to NNSA Tuesday, GREEN charges
the agency with using deficient grounds in rejecting the bid, and acting
"in a biased and prejudicial manner Š by treating the Livermore Lab GREEN
and its proposal differently than it treated competitors."

GREEN called for an immediate reinstatement of its bid to manage the lab.

The University of California, which manages two other US nuclear-research
labs in addition to Lawrence Livermore, partnered with the firm Bechtel to
submit its proposal. Weapons giant Northrop Grumman is also vying for
management of the facility.

© 2007 The NewStandard.
###

Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director

Tri-Valley CAREs
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA  94551

Ph: (925) 443-7148
Fx: (925) 443-0177
Web: www.trivalleycares.org
Email: marylia at trivalleycares.org or marylia at earthlink.net