FAR Part 13.5 Sole Source Dow Jones & Company_Redacted.pdf

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION UNDER SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN

COMMERCIAL ITEMS IN ACCORDANCE WITH FEDERAL ACQUISITION

REGULATION (FAR) 13.5

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Headquarters Procurement Services, proposes to enter into a contract on a sole-source basis on behalf of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Office of Energy Analysis (OEA), with Dow Jones & Company Inc.

(hereafter referred to as “Dow Jones”) for its Thermal Coal/Steel Raw Materials Markets & Research Product (hereafter referred to as “Coal Data”). This document sets forth the justification for the sole-source acquisition found at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13.5 in accordance with 41 U.S. Code § 1901.

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The EIA intends to award a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) order to Dow Jones for a one-year base period from August 22, 2022 to August 21, 2023.

EIA requires an order with Dow Jones to procure Coal Data to model and provide commentary and context around fundamental market conditions for coal markets in key publications including the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), and, in particular, the International Energy Outlook (IEO).

Vendor Name: Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Address: 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036

UEI: Q34UKAD7ZCB4

CAGE: 0U6M1

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs including the estimated value.

Thermal Coal Price, Trade, and Stats provides data on international coal trade prices and quantities that form the historical baseline for IEO modeling as well as tracking of international coal trade. North America Coal Markets provides data, news, and analysis for coal trade for steam and met coal to support domestic forecasts and projections for all EIA Outlook products. The Asia-Pacific Countries (APAC) & Africa Coal Markets and the Greater China Coal Markets provide helpful insights into international coal markets given the importance of these large and growing regions in global coal trade. Steel Raw Materials Service can be useful for understanding met coal market conditions.

AEO is published to satisfy the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, which requires the Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration to prepare annual reports on trends and projections for energy use and supply. The AEO presents an assessment of the outlook for energy markets through 2050. This product is critical to EIA’s mandate to provide an unbiased view of energy markets and to promote public understanding of important energy issues.

Anticipated Dollar Value of the Proposed Acquisition.

The Anticipated Dollar Value for the Base Year is .

4. The statutory authority permitting the sole source acquisition.

The statutory authority permitting the sole source acquisition is 41 U.S. Code § 1901 as implemented by FAR Part 13.501(a).

5. Determination that proposed Contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

Dow Jones is a global provider of critical technical information and related decision-support tools and strategic and operational services. Dow Jones offers highly reliable technical content with deep domain expertise in its focused industries and is the sole author and provider of the Thermal Coal/Steel Raw Materials Markets & Research product. This product is the exclusive and proprietary intellectual property of Dow Jones, which Dow Jones has attested to in their sole-source provider letter dated June 22, 2022.

Furthermore, the ability to model and provide commentary and context around fundamental market conditions for coal markets in the AEO, STEO, and, in particular, the IEO will be severely degraded without access to Global Coal. EIA will be unable to reliably update international coal trade price and quantity baseline values for IEO, resulting in substantial additional analyst effort and/or reduced defensibility of the resulting projections.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practical, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:

The Notice of Intent to Sole Source was posted to SAM.gov on June 22, 2022, as required by FAR 5.2, to ensure offers were solicited from as many potential sources as practicable for this sole-source Firm-Fixed-Price order. The posting closed July 7, 2022 with no vendors responding to the notice of intent.

7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

No award shall be made until the Contracting Officer determines the cost to the Government to be fair and reasonable. This determination will be based on a comparison of the proposed price with prices found reasonable on previous purchases.

8. A description of the market research conducted:

EIA has not been able to identify any other sources comparable to Dow Coal Data. Dow Jones is the sole author and provider of the Coal Data. Dow Jones provided an updated letter on June 22, 2022 confirming that Dow Jones is the sole-source provider of the Coal Data.

Furthermore, a Notice of Intent to Sole Source was posted to SAM.gov on June 22, 2022 and closed July 7, 2022. No responses were received.

9. Other facts supporting the use of Sole Source Justification

None

10. A statement of actions, if any, that were taken to remove or overcome any barriers to competition:

No other vendors have been identified or expressed an interest in providing the unique detailed reports that are supplied by Dow Jones. If in the future other sources are identified to provide these unique reports, then this requirement will be competed.

CERTIFICATION:

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and which form a basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.

Acquisition Initiator

REVIEW:

I have reviewed this justification and certify that it is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Contracting Officer: