Opinion ID: 744140
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Specific Congressional Intent

Text: 13 Congress' specific intent to include or exclude CBM in its reservation of coal must be judged from the perspective of Congress at the time of enactment of the 1909 and 1910 Acts. From that perspective, the Amoco defendants argue that we can easily discern Congress' specific intent. First, they argue that in 1909 coal was typically defined as a solid rock, without specific mention of gaseous constituents. Amoco Br. at 17; Amoco Prod. Co., 874 F.Supp. at 1153. Second, they contend that in 1909 Congress was aware of CBM as a hazardous gaseous byproduct of coal and could specifically have retained the CBM by inserting the word gas in the mineral reservation had it so wished. From these facts defendants conclude that Congress' use of the word coal in its mineral reservation was not inadvertent, and that Congress specifically chose to reserve only solid rock coal. 5 14 We might agree with Amoco if we were construing a contemporary reservation in the light of the present commercial value of CBM and the relative ease of its extraction. But our task is to try to discern the intent of Congress almost three quarters of a century ago. Even if Congress intended to retain only solid rock coal, in 1909 Congress may have considered CBM to be part of that solid coal. CBM is generated as part of the chemical and physical processes which convert carbon-rich sediments into solid coal (coalification). J. Hovey Kemp & Kurt M. Petersen, Coal-Bed Gas Development in the San Juan Basin: A Primer for the Lawyer and Landman, 1988 ROCKY MTN. ASS'N OF GEOLOGISTS 257, 259. In this respect, CBM is like other hydrocarbon gases which are similarly generated by the compaction and chemical alteration of carbon-rich source rock. But, unlike hydrocarbon gases which are mobile (fugacious) and are typically found trapped in reservoir rocks distant from their source rocks, the CBM at issue in this case is still trapped in the rock with which it was generated. It is trapped by adsorption 6 on the internal surface of micropores, and as free gas in cracks and fractures. 7 Ownership of and Right to Extract Coalbed Gas in Federal Coal Deposits, 88 Interior Dec. 538, 540 n. 11 (1981) (quoting Deul, Methane Drainage from Coal Beds, A Program of Applied Research, 60 ROCKY MTN. COAL MINING INST. 13 (1964)). CBM which is trapped in coal cannot migrate away from the coal. 15 Furthermore, although CBM in a gaseous state can be produced from coal, prior to that production most CBM is not, in situ, a gas within the typical physical definition of the term. 8 It is not sufficiently like other natural gases for us to conclude that Congress unambiguously intended the owners of other natural gases to also own CBM associated with the reserved coal. The adsorbed component of CBM is molecularly bound to the coal and cannot be released without an alteration in the physical state of the coal. In fact, release of either adsorbed or fracture-trapped CBM requires production techniques which often cause significant damage to the coal. 9 CBM ownership, therefore, cannot be disposed of by the simple tautology that gas is gas. We are concerned not with the physical state of the substance as gas at the surface when it is produced, but rather with its physical state prior to extraction, as trapped in coal. Even assuming Congress specifically intended to retain only solid rock coal, that solid rock coal is the source for and traps CBM. Because CBM is an integral part of the coal, Congress could certainly have considered it part of the solid rock. 10 Indeed, it seems to us quite unlikely that Congress, if it had considered the matter, would have reasoned, We want the Government to hold on to the solid bituminous core of these coal deposits, but we make no claim to the thin layer of molecules of CBM which coats the surfaces. 16 Moreover, we disagree that a specific intent to retain only solid rock coal was evinced by Congress' awareness that CBM was occasionally released as a hazardous byproduct of coal mining. CBM was not readily severable from coal in 1909 even though it is now potentially severable through application of advanced drilling and production technologies. 11 See Kemp & Petersen, supra, at 261 (Due to technical advances and changes in the world energy supply, the recovery and utilization of coal-bed gas now appears to be more feasible.). It is not reasonable to impute to Congress a desire to retain only solid rock coal constituents and to convey gaseous coal constituents when CBM is an integral component of coal and in 1909 there appears to have been no technology by which a patent holder could extract CBM from coal without damaging or destroying the coal. Because no effective means existed in 1909 to remove CBM leaving the coal behind, CBM physically trapped in coal was necessarily retained with the coal reservoir. 17 The fact that CBM could not be commercially extracted from coal in 1909 indicates to us it is inappropriate to conclude that Congress intended a specific result one way or the other regarding CBM by its use of the word coal. Rather, we conclude that where the commercial value of CBM was unappreciated at the time of the enactment, the text of these acts gives us no particular indication of Congress' specific intent with regard to that asset. See United States v. Union Oil Co. of California, 549 F.2d 1271, 1273 (9th Cir.1977) (Congress was not aware of geothermal power when it enacted the Stock-Raising Homestead Act in 1916; it had no specific intention either to reserve geothermal resources or to pass title to them.); Northern Natural Gas, 441 F.2d at 714-15 (no specific intent to exclude helium will be inferred where lessors neither knew of presence nor appreciated value of helium gas); cf. Aulston, 915 F.2d at 594, 599 (rejecting argument that use of gas in mineral reservation evinced a specific congressional intent to exclude carbon dioxide from a gas reservation, when inclusion comported with general intent of statute and value of carbon dioxide was not appreciated at time of mineral reservation). 18 We are thus unable to conclude that Congress formed a specific intent to convey CBM as a gas given the uncertainty that Congress viewed CBM as a component distinct from solid rock coal, knew CBM was severable, knew that it had a value, and purposefully chose to reject that value. As a consequence, we are persuaded that the 1909 and 1910 Acts are ambiguous with respect to Congress' specific intent regarding CBM. Cf. Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. at 56, 103 S.Ct. at 2229-30 (noting that the term mineral is ambiguous with respect to congressional intent to reserve gravel as a mineral). In the absence of specific congressional intent, we look at the general purpose of the statute and the historical context in which it was enacted to determine congressional intent. Aulston, 915 F.2d at 598. General intent should be discovered ... by considering the purposes of the grant in terms of enjoyment of the rights created. Northern Natural Gas, 441 F.2d at 714. In our opinion general intent is closer to original intent than is specific intent which blossoms when a component previously regarded as an impurity becomes valuable. Id. at 715.