I think we would have better luck trying to get into the pants of super models than getting a truthful response from them at this point.
Instead of dragging this out, why not just tell those of us that are at the bottom of the barrel that we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting an award (I'd even be okay if my email having an evil laugh attached to it) and then make all the people who are 'qualified' sweat out till the last minute. Just more proof that the government is made up of a bunch of sadists.
It's not about what you did wrong, but rather that someone's application looked better than yours (GPA, number of publications, letters of recommendation, etc. etc. etc.). Your best bet in the coming year is to work as hard as you can to make your application stronger, especially gearing your research goals toward things the DOE is interested in sponsoring.