By Lisa Pickoff-White and Kelly Wilkinson
Albany city officials made their pitch Wednesday night to host the second campus of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (Click here for Berkeleyside's live-blog of that meeting.) The laboratory has outgrown its main campus in Berkeley and is looking to grow.
Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond were chosen as finalists to house the new lab out of 21 Bay Area cities that applied.
The competition is fierce because the second campus will generate jobs and investments for years to come, says Karen Engle who directs the East Bay Economic Development Association. Alameda is even offering the lab free land.
"Not only [are they competing] for the lab itself but for companies that are either spinning out of science at the lab or companies that want to co-locate with the lab and share scientific resources or people," Engle said.