Letter to Samuel W. Bodman, Secretary of the DOE

Letter

Nevada Congressional Delegation Calls on DOE to Recuse Conflicted Law Firm

Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign, along with Reps. Shelley Berkley, Jon Porter, and Dean Heller, today called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to recuse the law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius from any additional work on Yucca Mountain because of conflicts of interest recently investigated by the DOE's Inspector General.

A copy of the letter signed by the entire Nevada Delegation and sent to Samuel W. Bodman, Secretary of the DOE, follows:

Dear Secretary Bodman:

As you may know, the Department of Energy's Inspector General recently completed a review of alleged conflicts of interest involving the Department's legal services contractor for the Yucca Mountain Project. We write today to request that you recuse this law firm - Morgan Lewis & Bockius (Morgan Lewis) - from any additional work related to the Yucca Mountain project.

In the Inspector General's report on this investigation, he noted that by selecting a law firm "which represented utilities in spent nuclear fuel litigation against the Government," the Department "accepted a firm with a conflict of interest." It is our view that the Department of Energy made a mistake in waiving this conflict of interest, and in so doing did not serve the public interest. While the Inspector General acknowledged that the Department 'checked the boxes' in its procurement and did not break any laws, he also explained that DOE failed to provide adequate documentation of its decision to hire Morgan Lewis.

The Department set aside the Competition in Contracting Act to give Morgan Lewis this contract, potentially worth over $100 million, in a closed no-bid process that only involved two other law firms. With inadequate explanation, the Department reversed its policy of excluding from consideration any law firm that represents utilities in spent nuclear fuel litigation. In 1999, the Department's policy was that it "cannot afford a public perception that its licensing decisions regarding the repository were influenced by a firm that owes loyalties to the nuclear utilities." However last year, the Department hired Morgan Lewis - a law firm with at least a dozen lawsuits against DOE involving spent nuclear fuel acceptance issues - to help prepare its license application for Yucca Mountain. The Department might have checked the boxes in hiring Morgan Lewis, but it is clear that the public interest was disregarded to hire a law firm favored by the nuclear energy industry.

The Department of Energy does not serve a specific industry, it serves the country and the American public. It is utterly disingenuous for the Department to claim that there are no other law firms with extensive experience in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's regulatory process that do not have a conflict of interest. For that reason, we request you to immediately terminate the Department's contract with Morgan Lewis, and begin a competitive procurement process if the firm's replacement is deemed necessary to comply with current law.

Should you have any questions, please contact Dayle Cristinzio/Alex McDonough (Senator Reid, 202-224-3542), Pam Thiessen (Senator Ensign, 202-224-6244), David Cherry (Congresswoman Berkley, 202-225-5965), Shannon Meade (Congressman Porter, 202-225-3252), or Greg Facchiano (Congressman Heller, 202-225-6155). We appreciate your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Harry Reid John Ensign
U.S. Senator U.S. Senator

Shelley Berkley Jon Porter Dean Heller
U.S. Representative U.S. Representative U.S. Representative