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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1331', '§ 810', '§ 3120', '§ 810', '§ 3120', '§ 810', '§ 4', '§ 810', '§ 1251', '§ 810', '§ 810', '§ 810', '§ 1351', '§ 810', '§ 1', '§ 1301', '§ 6', '§ 4', '§ 1312', '§ 2', '§ 1331', '§ 810', '§ 3120']

AMOCO PRODUCTION V. VILLAGE OF GAMBELL, 480 U. S. 531 - Volume 480 - 1987 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 480 > AMOCO PRODUCTION V. VILLAGE OF GAMBELL, 480 U. S. 531 (1987) > Full Text
Petitioner Secretary of the Interior granted oil and gas leases to petitioner oil companies in the Norton Sound (Lease Sale 57) and Navarin Basin (Lease Sale 83) areas of the Bering Sea under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), 67 Stat. 462, as amended, 43 U.S.C. § 1331 et seq. (1982 ed. and Supp. III). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit directed the entry of a preliminary injunction against all activity in connection with the leases, because it concluded that it was likely that the Secretary had failed to comply with § 810 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), 94 Stat. 2371, 16 U.S.C. § 3120, prior to issuing the leases. We granted certiorari, 476 U.S. 1157, and we now reverse. [Footnote 1]
When the Secretary of the Interior proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Sale 57, the Alaska Native villages of Gambell and Stebbins sought to enjoin him from proceeding with the sale, claiming that it would adversely affect their aboriginal rights to hunt and fish on the OCS, and that the Secretary had failed to comply with ANILCA § 810(a), 16 U.S.C. § 3120(a), which provides protection for natural resources used for subsistence in Alaska. [Footnote 2] The District Court denied their motion for a preliminary injunction, and thereafter granted summary judgment in favor of the Secretary and oil company intervenors, holding that the villagers had
746 F.2d at 576. Finding the phrase ambiguous, the court examined the legislative history and concluded that Congress wrote the extinguishment provision broadly 'to accomplish a complete and final settlement of aboriginal claims and avoid further litigation of such claims.' Ibid. The court then concluded that ANILCA § 810 had the same geographical scope as ANCSA § 4(b):"
Id. at 581. The court acknowledged the familiar rule of statutory construction that doubtful expressions must be resolved in favor of Indians. See Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States, 248 U. S. 78, 248 U. S. 89 (1918). It then remanded to the District Court the questions whether the Secretary had substantially complied with ANILCA § 810 in the
In compliance with the Court of Appeals' decision, the Secretary prepared a post-sale evaluation of possible impacts on subsistence uses from Lease Sale 57. [Footnote 6] The Secretary found
In April, 1985, the villages sought a preliminary injunction in the District Court against exploratory activities in Norton Sound. At the same time, the village of Gambell, joined by Nunam Kitlutsisti, an organization of Yukon Delta Natives, filed a complaint seeking to void Lease Sale 83 and to enjoin imminent exploratory drilling in the Navarin Basin. The District Court consolidated the motions for preliminary injunctions, and denied them. It found that respondents had established a strong likelihood of success on the merits. Although the Secretary, in the EIS's for the Five-Year Leasing Plan and for the Norton Sound and Navarin Basin Lease Sales, had evaluated in some detail the effect of OCS oil and
Respondents appealed from the District Court's denial of a preliminary injunction. The Ninth Circuit reversed. People of Gambell v. Hodel, 774 F.2d 1414 (1985)
rreparable damage is presumed when an agency fails to evaluate thoroughly the environmental impact of a proposed action.'" 774 F.2d at 1423. It ruled that "injunctive relief is the appropriate remedy for a violation of an environmental statute, absent rare or unusual circumstances." Ibid. "Unusual circumstances" are those in which an injunction would interfere with a long-term contractual relationship, Forelaws on Board v. Johnson, 743 F.2d 677 (CA9 1984), or would result in irreparable harm to the environment, American Motorcyclist Assn. v. Watt, 714 F.2d 962, 966 (CA9 1983). 774 F.2d at 1423-1425. The court found no such circumstances in the instant case. The Ninth Circuit also concluded that the policy declared in OCSLA to expedite exploration of the OCS had been superseded by ANILCA's policy to preserve the subsistence culture of Alaska Natives. Finally, the court rejected arguments that it was improper to apply Gambell I retroactively to Lease Sale 83.
Petitioners assert that the Ninth Circuit erred in directing the grant of a preliminary injunction. We addressed a similar contention in Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U. S. 305 (1982). The District Court in that case found that the Navy had violated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. (1982 ed. and Supp. III), by discharging ordnance into the sea without a permit. 456 U.S. at 456 U. S. 307-308. The court ordered the Navy to apply for a permit, but refused to enjoin weapons training operations during the application process because the Navy's "technical violations" were not causing any "appreciable harm" to the
Ibid. (quoting Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U. S. 395, 328 U. S. 398 (1946)). Applying these principles, we concluded that the purpose of the FWPCA -- to restore and maintain the integrity of the Nation's waters -- would not be undermined by allowing the statutory violation to continue during the permit application
process, because the ordnance was not polluting the water. 456 U.S. at 456 U. S. 314-315. The First Circuit had erroneously focused on the integrity of the permit process, rather than on the integrity of the Nation's waters. Moreover, the permit process was not completely circumvented, since the District Court ordered the Navy to apply for a permit. An injunction against all discharges was not the only means of ensuring compliance with the Act, [Footnote 8] and we found nothing in the Act's language and structure or legislative history which suggested that Congress intended to deny courts their traditional equitable discretion. [Footnote 9]
We see nothing which distinguishes Romero-Barcelo from the instant case. The purpose of ANILCA § 810 is to protect Alaskan subsistence resources from unnecessary destruction. Section 810 does not prohibit all federal land use actions which would adversely affect subsistence resources, but sets forth a procedure through which such effects must be considered and provides that actions which would significantly restrict subsistence uses can only be undertaken if they are necessary and if the adverse effects are minimized. There is no clear indication in § 810 that Congress intended to deny federal district courts their traditional equitable discretion in enforcing the provision, nor are we compelled to infer such a limitation. Like the First Circuit in Romero-Barcelo, the Ninth Circuit erroneously focused on the statutory procedure, rather than on the underlying substantive policy the process was designed to effect -- preservation of subsistence resources. The District Court's refusal to issue a preliminary injunction against all exploration activities did not undermine this policy. The District Court, after reviewing the EIS's for the Secretary's Five-Year Leasing Plan and for Lease Sales 57 and 83, as well as the § 810 study prepared after Gambell I, expressly found that exploration activities would not significantly restrict subsistence uses. [Footnote 10] The Court of Appeals did not conclude that this factual finding was clearly erroneous. The District Court also found that "the Secretary continues to possess power to control and shape the off-shore leasing process," App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 85-1239, p. 63a, referring to the four distinct stages under OCSLA, particularly the requirement for secretarial approval of a development and production plan, 43 U.S.C. § 1351. See n 6, supra. The Court of Appeals did not dispute that the Secretary could meaningfully comply with ANILCA § 810 in conjunction with his review of production and development plans. Instead, the court stated that "[i]rreparable damage
is presumed when an agency fails to evaluate thoroughly the environmental impact of a proposed action." 774 F.2d at 1423 (emphasis added). This presumption is contrary to traditional equitable principles, and has no basis in ANILCA. Moreover, the environment can be fully protected without this presumption. Environmental injury, by its nature, can seldom be adequately remedied by money damages, and is often permanent, or at least of long duration, i.e., irreparable. If such injury is sufficiently likely, therefore, the balance of harms will usually favor the issuance of an injunction to protect the environment. Here, however, injury to subsistence resources from exploration was not at all probable. And on the other side of the balance of harms was the fact that the oil company petitioners had committed approximately $70 million to exploration to be conducted during the summer of 1985 which they would have lost without chance of recovery had exploration been enjoined. Id. at 1430.
App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 85-1239, p. 63a. The Court of Appeals concluded, however, that the public interest favored injunctive relief because the interests served by federal environmental statutes, such as ANILCA, supersede all other interests that might be at stake. We do not read ANILCA to have repealed OCSLA. Congress clearly did not state in ANILCA
(Emphasis added.) The phrase "in Alaska" has a precise geographic/political meaning. The boundaries of the State of Alaska can be delineated with exactitude. The State of Alaska was "admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the other States," and its boundaries were defined as "all the territory, together with the territorial waters appurtenant thereto, now included in the Territory of Alaska." Alaska Statehood Act (Statehood Act) §§ 1, 2, 72 Stat. 339. The Submerged Lands Act of 1953, 67 Stat. 29, as amended, 43 U.S.C. § 1301 et seq. (1982 ed. and Supp. III), was made applicable to the State. Statehood Act § 6(m), 72 Stat. 343. Under § 4 of the Submerged Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. § 1312, the seaward boundary of a coastal State extends to a line three miles from its coastline. At that line, the OCS commences. OCSLA § 2(a), 43 U.S.C. § 1331(a). By definition, the OCS is not situated in the State of Alaska. Nevertheless, the Ninth Circuit concluded that "in Alaska" should be construed in a general, "nontechnical" sense to mean the geographic region of Alaska, including the Outer Continental Shelf. [Footnote 14] 746 F.2d
United States v. Locke, 471 U. S. 84, 471 U. S. 95 (1985) (quoting Richards v. United States, 369 U. S. 1, 369 U. S. 9 (1962)). This is not that "exceptional case" where acceptance of the plain meaning of a word would "thwart the obvious purpose of the statute." Griffin v. Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U. S. 564, 458 U. S. 571 (1982) (internal quotations omitted). [Footnote 15]
Nothing in the language or structure of ANILCA compels the conclusion that "in Alaska" means something other than "in the State of Alaska." The subsistence protection provisions of the statute must be viewed in the context of the Act as a whole. [Footnote 16] ANILCA's primary purpose was to complete the allocation of federal lands in the State of Alaska, [Footnote 17] a process begun with the Statehood Act in 1958 and continued in 1971 in ANCSA. [Footnote 18] To this end, it provided for additions to
the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, National Forest System, National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and National Wilderness Preservation System, and also provided for the establishment of a National Conservation Area and National Recreation Area, within the State of Alaska. Titles II-VII, 94 Stat. 2377-2422. The Act also provided means to facilitate and expedite the conveyance of federal lands within the State to the State of Alaska under the Statehood Act and to Alaska Natives under ANCSA. Titles IX and XIV, 94 Stat. 2430-2448, 2491-2549. The remaining federal lands within the State were left available for resource development and disposition under the public land laws. The other provisions of ANILCA have no express applicability to the OCS, and need not be extended beyond the State of Alaska in order to effectuate their apparent purposes. [Footnote 19] It is difficult to believe that Congress intended the subsistence protection provisions of Title VIII, alone among all the provisions in the Act, to apply to the OCS. It is particularly implausible because the same definition of "public lands" which defines the scope of Title VIII applies as well to
When statutory language is plain, and nothing in the Act's structure or relationship to other statutes calls into question
this plain meaning, that is ordinarily "the end of the matter." Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 467 U. S. 842 (1984).
125 Cong.Rec. 9900 (1979) (emphasis added); see also id. at 11128. This casual use of the phrase "in Alaska" in a floor debate does not carry the same weight that it does in the definitional section of the statute. [Footnote 21] Spoken language is ordinarily less precise than written language; Representative Udall could easily have intended to say "offshore of Alaska." Indeed, the obvious thrust of his statement was that ANILCA does not apply to the OCS; rather, OCSLA governs offshore oil development. Numerous statements by other legislators reveal a common understanding -- consistent with the plain meaning of the statutory language -- that ANILCA simply "has nothing to do with the Outer Continental Shelf," id. at 1170 (remarks of Rep. Emery). [Footnote 22]
Given the Court's holding that § 810 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), 94 Stat. 2371, 16 U.S.C. § 3120, does not apply to the Outer Continental Shelf, it is unnecessary to decide whether the Court of Appeals applied the proper standard in determining the
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