Opinion ID: 744140
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: General Congressional Intent

Text: 19 In interpreting the relevant [statutory] language ... we look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy. Aulston, 915 F.2d at 589; see also United States v. Colorado, 990 F.2d 1565, 1575 (10th Cir.1993). [W]e look at not only the statute itself but also at the larger statutory context. We may ascertain the intent of Congress through statutory language and legislative history. Utah v. Babbitt, 53 F.3d at 1148 (citations omitted).
20 To understand the general congressional intent behind the 1909 and 1910 Acts, we review the historical context in which they were enacted, including the history of the Southern Ute Tribe's acquisition of its reservation lands and the United States' reservation of the coal it ultimately conveyed to the Tribe. We begin in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the formation of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. 21 The Ute Indian Reservation was established in 1864, when the Uncompahgre, White River and Southern Utes exchanged their aboriginal lands in New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado for ... approximately 15.7 million acres ... within Colorado. United States v. Southern Ute Tribe or Band of Indians, 402 U.S. 159, 162, 91 S.Ct. 1336, 1338, 28 L.Ed.2d 695 (1971). The reservation did not long remain intact. In 1874, 3.7 million acres of the reservation were ceded to the United States upon discovery of mineral resources on reservation land. Id. In 1880, the remaining reservation land was ceded to the United States in return for individual allotments and shares in the proceeds of unallotted land sales. Id. at 164, 91 S.Ct. at 1339 (quoting United States v. Southern Ute Tribe or Band of Indians, 191 Ct.Cl. 1, 423 F.2d 346, 350 (1970)). The Uncompahgre and White River Utes left the reservation before 1882. Id. at 162, 91 S.Ct. at 1338. 22 After the cession of reservation land, the United States opened the ceded, non-allotted reservation to homesteading and mineral exploration under the terms and conditions of a variety of federal statutes. Amoco Prod. Co., 874 F.Supp. at 1148 (citing the Homestead Act of 1862, 43 U.S.C. §§ 161 et seq. (repealed 1976), the Coal Lands Act of 1873, 17 Stat. 607, and the Mining Law of 1872, 30 U.S.C.A. § 22). At that time, the disposition of land owned by the United States depended upon whether it was classified as mineral land or nonmineral land, and title to the entire land was disposed of on the basis of th[at] classification. Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. at 47, 103 S.Ct. at 2225. Because the United States Geological Survey had insufficient resources to evaluate the mineral character of each land parcel before patent issuance, it often depended on the attestation of a patent applicant to determine the character of his land. Id. at 48 n. 9, 103 S.Ct. at 2225 n. 9. Although this honor system for patent evaluation inevitably led to considerable abuse, agricultural settlement and mineral exploration of reservation lands and other areas in the western United States proceeded for several decades under this system. 23 In 1906, President Roosevelt withdrew from homesteading or mineral patenting approximately 64 million acres considered to be valuable for coal resources, including the ceded, non-allotted Ute Reservation lands. Id. at 48-49, 103 S.Ct. at 2225-26 (citing 41 CONG. REC. 2615 (1907)). Two concerns drove the withdrawal of coal lands: first, the government wished to end the issuance of patents in reliance on an entrant's attestation of the mineral character of the land; and second, the government wished to encourage optimal land use by ensuring that lands valuable for mineral resources would not be held unavailable for mineral exploration by homesteading claims. Id. In his Sixth Annual Message to the nation, President Roosevelt explained that the withdrawal was necessary to preserve ownership of coal resources in the United States and to ensure price control of coal and disposition of the coal resources under conditions which would inure to the benefit of the public as a whole. PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT, SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE (Dec. 3, 1906), reprinted in XV THE WORKS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 363 (1926). 24 The 1906 withdrawal included lands on which the process of homesteading (holding the land for a term of years in agricultural use in return for a land patent) had begun. Homesteaders who had entered the land in good faith, believing the land to be of nonmineral character, were disenfranchised by the withdrawal. To remedy that disenfranchisement while preserving the value of coal for future use of the United States, Congress enacted the 1909 Act. That act permitted existing good faith agricultural entrants whose land had been subject to the 1906 withdrawal to receive patents for those lands subject only to a reservation to the United States of all coal in said lands. 30 U.S.C. § 81. In 1910, Congress enacted a similar statute for the protection of prospective agricultural entrants to federal lands. Under the protection of these Acts, the Amoco defendants' predecessors in interest claimed patents to land subject only to the reservation of coal in the United States. 25 Homesteading and mineral exploration proceeded under these statutes until 1934, when Congress changed its policy toward Indian Tribes and passed the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 25 U.S.C. §§ 463-479, which restored to tribal ownership some lands previously taken by the federal government. Congress provided that [t]he Secretary of the Interior, if he shall find it to be in the public interest, is authorized to restore to tribal ownership the remaining surplus lands of any Indian reservation opened before June 18, 1934, subject to any outstanding rights or claims. Id. § 463(a). In 1938, pursuant to the 1934 Act, equitable title to coal held by the federal government on the Southern Ute Reservation was returned to the Tribe, subject to outstanding homestead patents. Amoco Prod. Co., 874 F.Supp. at 1151.
26 With this background, we turn to the general intent behind the 1909 and 1910 Acts. Defendants argue and the district court agreed, Amoco Prod. Co., 874 F.Supp. at 1155-59, that, in attempting to preserve coal lands for the benefit of the public as a whole and to remedy the negative impacts of the 1906 land withdrawals, Congress specifically considered and rejected a broad reservation of all minerals. From that rejection, defendants contend, we should infer that Congress knowingly chose the most narrow possible meaning of coal. Defendants rely on a passage of debate between a member of the House of Representatives from Texas and the Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands concerning the intended mineral reservation: 27 Mr. STEPHENS of Texas. Could the gentleman better arrive at what he desires by only patenting the surface of the land and reserving all minerals, precious and otherwise? 28 Mr. MONDELL. That has been discussed at some length, and the Committee on Public Lands is not of the opinion that that ought to be done. We believe this is quite a sufficient departure from the past practice of the Government. The lands which this legislation will affect are lands which the department has claimed contain some coals of value. 29 43 CONG. REC. 2504 (1909) (emphasis added). Even bearing in mind the admonition that legislative history should be treated cautiously, Exxon Corp. v. Lujan, 970 F.2d 757, 761 (10th Cir.1992), it is clear that Congress recognized in 1909 it had the option to reserve all minerals and rejected that option. 30 Congress' rejection of an all minerals reservation, however, does not inform us about Congress' intent regarding the extent of the reservation of a single substance, coal. Moreover, the quoted exchange between Representatives Stephens and Mondell does not bear the weight defendants would have us give it because the Committee affirmatively considered and rejected several other options, including no reservation of coal. Aplt.'s App., vol. VI at 1275, Hearings on Coal Lands and Coal-Land Laws of the United States Before the House Committee on Public Lands, 59th Cong., 2d. Sess. 17 (Dec. 17, 1906) (hereinafter Hearings ) (statement of Edgar E. Clark) (considering the use of government-imposed railroad rates to retain control of coal supply). The Committee also discussed and rejected the possibility of retaining only ownership of coal which was marketable in 1907. Aplt.'s App., vol. VI at 1286, Hearings, at 15 (Jan. 9, 1907) (statement of Marius R. Campbell); id. at 1281 (noting that the western coals at issue in this case were not mineable at that time and were inferior to the eastern coals, particularly from a steaming and coking standpoint). 31 Rather than adopt any of those options, Congress chose to reserve all the coal. Id. at 1287 (The only really effective way to retain the balance of the coal in the public domain in public ownership ... [was to] reserve the coal under the surface of all of the land. That would effectively retain in public ownership all the coal.). In so doing, the Committee was specifically informed it would retain coal that was not presently valuable, but which could become valuable in the future. Id. at 1281 ([W]hat may not be coking [valuable] coal to-day may be coking coal to-morrow; because there are improvements going on.); id. at 1282 (these [coals] may have a much greater value in the future). 32 It is apparent from the legislative history of the 1909 and 1910 Acts that Congress understood it had the option to reserve to the United States only coal having current economic value, and rejected that narrow mineral reservation. Congress knew there was indeterminate potential value in the reserved coal and intended to secure that value for the United States. 12 Rather than indicating a limited reservation of coal to the United States, the legislative history suggests that Congress adopted an interpretation of coal which encompassed both the present and future economic value of coal, including value that could only be realized through advances in technology such as those which drive the present day exploration for CBM. 33 Congress' broad general intent and the absence of a clear conveyance of CBM to the surface patentees, 13 coupled with the principle of statutory construction that resolves ambiguity in favor of the sovereign, persuades us that CBM was reserved to the United States.
34 Our conclusion that the reservation of coal should include CBM is buttressed by the interpretation given to analogous statutory mineral reservations. The same principle we rely on here, that ambiguity or uncertainty in the terms employed in land grants should be resolved in favor of the government, has been a subtext in the interpretation of many similar statutes reserving minerals to the United States. 35 In 1914, Congress enacted the Agricultural Entry Act, 30 U.S.C. §§ 121-125 (hereinafter the 1914 Act), reserving phosphate, nitrate, potash, oil, gas, or asphaltic minerals to the United States, id. § 121. Then in 1916, Congress enacted the Stock-Raising Homestead Act, 43 U.S.C. §§ 291-301 (hereinafter the 1916 Act), which reserved to the United States all the coal and other minerals, id. § 299. Uniformly, courts have treated these mineral reservations expansively. Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. at 60, 103 S.Ct. at 2231-32 (gravel is a mineral reserved to the United States in lands patented under the 1916 Act); Aulston, 915 F.2d at 585 (reservation of gas in the 1914 Act includes carbon dioxide); Union Oil Co., 549 F.2d at 1279 (geothermal energy included in 1916 Act's reservation of all the coal and other minerals); Brennan v. Udall, 379 F.2d 803, 804 (10th Cir.1967) (oil shale included in 1914 Act reservation of oil). Although the language employed in the 1914 and 1916 reservations is more expansive and admits more variety in type and character of mineral reservation than the language used in the 1909 and 1910 Acts, judicial interpretations of these statutes have reached for the outer limits of reasonable construction in favor of the sovereign. A particularly notable example is one court's classification of geothermal energy (hot water and steam) as a mineral. Union Oil Co., 549 F.2d at 1279. In fact, we have found no occasion in which a reservation of a mineral asset to the United States has been treated narrowly to exclude a newly appreciated value associated with that mineral; the cases cited above offer no support for doing so now. 36 In addition to the general principles of statutory construction on mineral reservations, we also have some specific guidance from Congress on the interpretation of the 1909 and 1910 Acts. In 1955, to aid exploration and extraction of uranium and other source materials 14 in coal reserved to the United States by the 1909 and 1910 Acts, Congress enacted legislation to control Entry and Location on Coal Lands on Discovery of Source Material. 30 U.S.C. §§ 541-541i (hereinafter the 1955 Act). The 1955 Act granted to the patent holder of lands in which the United States reserved a coal interest the exclusive right to mine, remove, and dispose of lignite [coal] containing ... source material [uranium and other similar minerals] ... subject to the reporting and payment requirements of section 541. Id. § 541c. The right to extract coal to obtain uranium was granted for all federal coal lands, except [ ] lands embraced within a coal prospecting permit or lease. Id. (emphasis added). 37 The Amoco defendants consider the legislative history of the 1955 Act relevant to our determination of CBM ownership. They quote a 1955 House Report which discusses the rights of surface patent holders who acquired their interests under the 1909 and 1910 Acts: 38 The entryman or owner of any land, ... with respect to which only the coal deposits have been reserved to the United States, heretofore has been presumed to have possessed fee simple title to all other minerals in the land, including valuable source minerals, regardless of the host material or the mode of occurrence. 39 H.R. R EP. No. 84-1478 (1955), reprinted in 1955 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2992, 2996. Amoco argues this legislative history supports their contention that, in 1955, Congress recognized the right of surface patent holders to exploit minerals contained in coal, and therefore the right to exploit CBM must be similarly granted to surface patent holders. 15 40 First, Amoco's assertion that the surface patent holder has the right to all other minerals begs the question of whether CBM is a mineral distinct from coal. Moreover, Amoco's interpretation of the legislative history of the 1955 Act is not the only interpretation the enactment will bear. We think the legislative history of the Act merely acknowledges a presumption that surface patent holders generally had the right to extract source minerals. The fact that Congress ultimately decided it must pass a statute to grant the surface patentees rights to uranium suggests that Congress did not believe the presumption extended to source minerals contained in federally owned coal. Moreover, Congress granted no right to extract uranium from coal where the United States had previously conveyed a coal lease. 30 U.S.C. § 541c. Congress' protection of existing coal leases also suggests that the 1955 Congress viewed the reservation of coal under the 1909 and 1910 Acts to encompass minerals such as uranium imbedded in coal. 41 The 1955 Act comports with a Congressional view that an imbedded mineral like uranium was part of the 1909 and 1910 Act coal reservations. That view applies with even greater force to integral components of coal like CBM, and if anything, convinces us that the 1955 Congress would resolve doubts regarding the 1909 and 1910 coal reservations, as we have here, in favor of the sovereign. 16
42 In summary, the direct legislative history of the coal lands acts indicates that Congress intended a reservation of coal that encompassed both the present and future economic value of coal. Congress was aware that full economic realization of that benefit would require advances in technology. Present day exploitation of CBM is a benefit of coal ownership that is consistent with Congress' general statutory intent. Given the limited value attributed to CBM in 1909 and 1910, we cannot infer that Congress intended to convey to the surface patent holder a component of coal which could not be severed from coal at the time of the statutes' enactments. In 1955, Congress itself recognized the supervening rights of coal owners in cases of dual mineral assets such as uranium and lignite. Lastly, courts have consistently construed mineral reservations in favor of the United States. These factors persuade us that Congress intended in the 1909 and 1910 Acts a broad definition of coal, and that CBM trapped in coal is included in the reservation of coal to the United States. 17 43 At this juncture, our statutory interpretation is complete and we would normally conclude our analysis. But defendants raise one last issue regarding CBM ownership which demands our attention: the 1981 Department of the Interior Solicitor's Opinion.D. 1981 Department of the Interior Solicitor's Opinion 44 In 1981, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior promulgated an opinion entitled Ownership of and Right to Extract Coalbed Gas in Federal Coal Deposits, 88 Interior Dec. 538 (1981) (hereinafter Solicitor's opinion), in which the Solicitor construed the meaning of coal in the 1909 and 1910 Acts and concluded that a reservation of 'coal' does not include coalbed gas. Id. at 549. Although the district court determined that the statutes were unambiguous and that no resort to agency interpretation was necessary, Amoco Prod. Co., 874 F.Supp. at 1154, it nevertheless alternatively grant [ed] deference to the 1981 Solicitor's opinion that Congress' use of the term coal does not include CBM gas, id. at 1160 (relying on Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984)). 45 On appeal, defendants contend we must defer to the Solicitor's long-standing administrative interpretation and implementation of statutes the Department of Interior administers. Federal Br. at 27; see also Amoco Br. at 43. Amoco argues as if Chevron deference were automatic, covering all kinds of agency expressions of policy and interpretation regardless of the decisionmaking process, whether prospective or retroactive, or whether concerned with public lands or private rights. The Tribe counters that the instant case is an adjudication of private property rights and that the Solicitor's opinion is not entitled to Chevron deference because it was issued ex parte without the Tribe's involvement. We believe that the proper application of Chevron requires a discriminating analysis. 1. The Opinion 46 After it became apparent that commercial recovery of CBM was economically feasible, the Department of the Interior sought to expedite the development of CBM on federal land. Before development could begin, however, it was necessary to resolve the unsettled question of CBM ownership. In instances where the United States had reserved all minerals (including coal, oil and gas), the government clearly owned the CBM. Where the United States held only a partial mineral estate, proposed development of CBM on federal land required clarifying whether ownership of CBM vested in the United States through its reservation of coal under the 1909 and 1910 Acts or through its reservation of oil and gas under the 1914 Act. As a subsidiary matter, it was also necessary to determine whether the right to extract federal CBM should be granted via an oil and gas lease or through a coal lease. 47 In 1981, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Interior offering a legal opinion on these questions; the letter was subsequently promulgated without notice and comment as a Solicitor's Opinion. 88 Interior Dec. at 539. To resolve the question of CBM ownership, the Solicitor construed the meaning of coal in the 1909 and 1910 Acts. Id. at 541-545. 18 Although he acknowledged the general canon that land grants are construed in favor of the sovereign and the fact that CBM had only recently become commercially severable from coal, the Solicitor nevertheless concluded that a reservation of 'coal' [under the 1909 and 1910 Acts] does not include coalbed gas. Id. at 549. Accordingly, he determined that CBM interests were vested in the federal government through its oil and gas reservations. Id. 48 In making this determination, the Solicitor did not address the impact of his decision on the interests of private parties who had acquired ownership of coal, oil or gas by federal land patent prior to the issuance of the 1981 opinion, nor was any notice of the pending decision given to such owners. 19 If this opinion were accorded Chevron deference, it would have a retroactive impact on private rights conveyed by the government some seventy years earlier. The question we face is whether this is the sort of decision Chevron is meant to enshrine. 20 2. Chevron Deference 49 In Chevron, the Supreme Court considered whether an agency construction of a statutory term promulgated as an agency legislative rule should be binding on courts and citizens. Chevron, 467 U.S. at 840, 104 S.Ct. at 2780. The Court stated that to determine whether deference was due the agency's statutory construction, a court must first determine whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue; if so, an agency must follow the clearly expressed intent of Congress. Id. at 842-43, 104 S.Ct. at 2781. The judiciary [as] the final authority on issues of statutory construction ... must reject administrative constructions which are contrary to clear congressional intent. Id. at 843 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. at 2781 n. 9. We have already held supra that Congress did not define the word coal in the 1909 and 1910 Acts and that Congress did not speak directly to the ownership of CBM. 21 50 When Congress has not addressed the precise question at issue, an agency requesting Chevron deference to its statutory interpretation must show that it has been delegated authority to address the question. Adams Fruit Co. v. Barrett, 494 U.S. 638, 649, 110 S.Ct. 1384, 1390, 108 L.Ed.2d 585 (1990) (a precondition to deference under Chevron is a congressional delegation of administrative authority); Homemakers North Shore, Inc. v. Bowen, 832 F.2d 408, 411 (7th Cir.1987) ([T]he first question in determining the deference appropriate to the agency's construction is whether Congress has transferred discretion [to interpret the statute] to the agency.). 51
52 The Department of the Interior has been expressly delegated authority over public lands. See 43 U.S.C. §§ 2, 1457; Best v. Humboldt Placer Mining Co., 371 U.S. 334, 336, 83 S.Ct. 379, 382, 9 L.Ed.2d 350 (1963) (Interior has been granted plenary authority over the administration of public lands, including mineral lands.). As part of that authority, Interior has the right to promulgate regulations and to determine the validity of claims against the public lands. Best, 371 U.S. at 336, 83 S.Ct. at 382. [S]o long as the legal title remains in the government, Interior clearly has the  'power, after proper notice and upon adequate hearing, to determine whether [a mining] claim is valid.'  Id. at 337, 83 S.Ct. at 383 (quoting Cameron v. United States, 252 U.S. 450, 460, 40 S.Ct. 410, 412, 64 L.Ed. 659 (1920)) (emphasis added); Nequoia Ass'n v. Department of the Interior, 626 F.Supp. 827 (D.Utah 1985) (Interior granted authority to determine validity of mining claims in National Parks under Mining in the Parks Act). For purposes of our analysis, we assume without deciding that Interior's power extends to the circumstances at issue here. 22 53
54 To satisfy Chevron, the delegation of authority to form binding policy must include not only discretion to formulate interpretations but also discretion to utilize the particular format selected. See Robert A. Anthony, Which Agency Interpretations Should Bind Citizens and the Courts?, 7 YALE J. ON REG. 1, 4 (1990) (hereinafter Anthony) (The touchstone in every case is whether Congress intended to delegate to the agency the power to interpret with the force of law in the particular format that was used.). After analyzing relevant Supreme Court cases, commentators Davis and Pierce have concluded Chevron should be held to apply to the meanings agencies give statutes in all legislative rules and in most adjudications. [But][i]t should not be held to apply to agency pronouncements in less formal formats.... 1 KENNETH C. DAVIS & RICHARD J. PIERCE, JR., ADMINISTRATIVE LAW TREATISE § 3.5, at 119 (3d ed.1994). 55 This circuit has denied Chevron deference to agency policies promulgated in formats other than legislative rules or adjudications. Headrick v. Rockwell Int'l Corp., 24 F.3d 1272, 1282 (10th Cir.1994) ( [W]hile [an interpretive rule] may be entitled to some consideration in our analysis, it does not carry the force of law and we are in no way bound to afford it any special deference under Chevron.) (citations omitted). As we have unequivocally held, [i]t is elementary administrative law that in order for [agency actions] to have binding force there are only two methods that an agency may use in formulating policy. It may establish binding policy either through rule-making procedures or through adjudications that create binding precedents. Amrep Corp. v. FTC, 768 F.2d 1171, 1178 (10th Cir.1985). 23 56 Most circuits agree with our conclusion that Chevron deference is owed only to legislative rules and agency adjudications. See, e.g., Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. New York State Dep't of Envtl. Conservation, 17 F.3d 521, 534-35 (2d Cir.1994) (denying Chevron deference to statutory interpretation promulgated in agency advisory circular after concluding that the advisory circular was not a regulation for the purposes of the Act at issue); Kelley v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 17 F.3d 836, 841-42 (6th Cir.1994) (distinguishing Chevron deference granted to agency legislative rules from lesser deference accorded policy statements and interpretive rulings); Satellite Broad. & Communications Ass'n of America v. Oman, 17 F.3d 344, 346-47 (11th Cir.1994) (according Chevron deference to formally promulgated legislative rule after previously declining to accord deference to similar policy decision); Travelstead v. Derwinski, 978 F.2d 1244, 1250 (Fed.Cir.1992) (noting general rule that agency pronouncements in formats less formal than legislative rules should be analyzed under Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 140, 65 S.Ct. 161, 164, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944), rather than Chevron ); Dalheim v. KDFW-TV, 918 F.2d 1220, 1228 & n. 39 (5th Cir.1990) (acknowledging application of Skidmore analysis to agency interpretive rules); cf. Limerick Ecology Action, Inc. v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 869 F.2d 719, 736 (3d Cir.1989) (an agency policy statement is entitled to no greater deference than any other policy statement, i.e., none) (citations omitted); Vietnam Veterans of America v. Secretary of the Navy, 843 F.2d 528, 537 (D.C.Cir.1988) (A binding policy is an oxymoron.). See generally Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Pena, 44 F.3d 437 (7th Cir.1994) (en banc) (Chevron deference owed where agency has rulemaking authority and follows notice and comment process but not where agency has no rulemaking authority), aff'd on other grounds, 516 U.S. 152, 116 S.Ct. 595, 133 L.Ed.2d 535 (1996) (holding text and structure of statute clear). 24 57 According to the Department of the Interior's internal regulations, the Solicitor has authority: 58 To issue final legal interpretations, in the form of M-Opinions published in Decisions of the United States Department of the Interior, on all matters within the jurisdiction of the Department, which shall be binding, when signed, on all other Departmental offices and officials and which may be overruled or modified only by the Solicitor, the Under Secretary, or the Secretary. 59 Aplt.'s App., vol. IX at 2069. A Solicitor's opinion is issued at the personal discretion of the Solicitor, without notice and comment, and can be overruled or modified at any time. Id. at 1982, 2069. The opinion at issue here, although presented as authoritative statutory construction, is nothing more than a public pronouncement that Interior will not assert the federal government's right to CBM under its reservation of coal; in that context, the opinion is a valid and useful document. As a simple policy statement, however, the Solicitor's opinion fails to provide the procedural protections required for Chevron deference to attach. 60 [A] practice of routine acceptance for interpretations expressed in [informal] formats would, in abdication of judicial duties under Marbury, endow them with force of law where Congress did not intend them to have such force. By this process, the agency would bind the public without itself being bound by interpretations in these formats. And since these formats are exempt from APA public participation requirements, an especially odious frustration is visited upon the affected private parties: they are bound by a proposition they had no opportunity to help shape and will have no meaningful opportunity to challenge when it is applied to them. 61 Anthony, supra, at 57-58 (footnotes omitted and emphasis added). 62 Agencies can make law only in two formats, legislative rules and adjudications; the Solicitor's opinion was not promulgated with the procedural protections attendant to either format. Amrep, 768 F.2d at 1178. Accordingly, Chevron does not mandate that we give deference to the 1981 Solicitor's opinion. 25 3. Skidmore Consideration 63 Although Chevron deference to the Solicitor's opinion is clearly not warranted, we do assess the merits of that opinion to the extent suggested in Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944). 64 We consider that the rulings, interpretations and opinions of the [agency], ... while not controlling upon the courts by reason of their authority, do constitute a body of experience and informed judgment to which courts and litigants may properly resort for guidance. The weight of such a judgment in a particular case will depend upon the thoroughness evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to persuade, if lacking power to control. 65 Id. at 140, 65 S.Ct. at 164; see also Headrick, 24 F.3d at 1282 (distinguishing between Chevron and Skidmore deference). There are several facets of this Solicitor's opinion, however, that impair its power to persuade. 66 The Solicitor began his analysis of CBM ownership by noting the principle of resolving doubts in land grants in favor of the sovereign. While properly citing Andrus v. Charlestone Stone Prods. Co., 436 U.S. 604, 617, 98 S.Ct. 2002, 2009-10, 56 L.Ed.2d 570 (1978), for this general principle on land grants, the Solicitor immediately qualified the application of that principle by asserting that land grants  'are not to be so construed as to defeat the intent of the legislature, or to withhold what is given either expressly or by necessary or fair implication....'  Leo Sheep Co. v. United States, 440 U.S. 668, 682-83, 99 S.Ct. 1403, 1411, 59 L.Ed.2d 677 (1979) (quoting United States v. Denver & Rio Grande Ry. Co., 150 U.S. 1, 14, 14 S.Ct. 11, 15, 37 L.Ed. 975 (1893)). Apart from the basic premise that the principle of favoring the sovereign is involved when the legislative intent is in doubt, as here, the quoted qualification to the general rule arose in the context of grants under the Railroad Acts where the United States had offered land to railroads as an inducement to undertake track construction. Id. Since the situation involved here is not analogous to the facts of Leo Sheep, the principle of resolving doubts in favor of the sovereign applies with undiminished vigor. The Solicitor's conclusion on CBM ownership was determined without application of this governing canon. 67 The Solicitor further compromised his legal analysis by citing a state law case and suggesting that principles of common law conveyances lend support to his conclusion regarding ownership of CBM. 88 Interior Dec. at 544. Not only was the particular case on which the Solicitor relied overruled on appeal, United States Steel Corp. v. Hoge, No. 78-682 (Pa. Ct. C.P., Greene Cty., March 24, 1980), aff'd, 304 Pa.Super. 182, 450 A.2d 162 (1982), rev'd, 503 Pa. 140, 468 A.2d 1380 (1983), but cases construing common law conveyances are inapposite to the case at bar as we have discussed supra note 17. 68 The Solicitor's position on the statutory reservation of CBM is also inconsistent with Interior statements on coal made contemporaneously with the 1909 and 1910 Acts. In 1909 the United States Geological Survey, a branch of the Department of the Interior, recognized that gas trapped with coal is generated by the coalification process. Rollin T. Chamberlin, Notes on Explosive Mine Gases and Dust, U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 383, H.R. DOC. NO . 59-823, at 16 (1909). This contemporaneous statement acknowledging the shared genesis of coal and CBM belies the Solicitor's simplistic conclusion that in 1909 Congress believed that coal was a solid rock. The Solicitor's narrow construction of coal in the 1909 and 1910 Acts is also inconsistent with the position Interior has taken in other similar mineral reservation disputes. As we have noted supra, Interior has typically construed such mineral reservations broadly. See Aulston, 915 F.2d at 595; Brennan v. Udall, 379 F.2d at 804; see also 1 CURTIS H. LINDLEY, AMERICAN LAW RELATING TO MINES AND MINERAL LANDS § 96, at 169 (the word 'mineral,' as used in these various acts, should be understood in its widest signification). On the few occasions in which a mineral term has been interpreted narrowly, courts have rejected those interpretations. See, e.g., Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. at 42, 45, 103 S.Ct. at 2222-23, 2224 (rejecting Circuit Court's reliance on 1910 Department of the Interior determination that gravel is not a mineral in favor of more recent expansive definitions of the term); Union Oil Co., 549 F.2d at 1279-80 & n. 19 (rejecting Department of the Interior letter opinions suggesting that geothermal steam is not a mineral within the meaning of the Stock-Raising Homestead Act). 69 Moreover, the opinion has a number of factual limitations that militate against applying it here. The opinion is titled Ownership of and Right to Extract Coalbed Gas in Federal Coal Deposits. 88 Interior Dec. 538 (1981). It thus only purports to govern the disposition of present federal land interests, not the interests of private parties, such as are at issue in this case. The opinion also explicitly refuses to warrant title to any oil and gas deposit. Id. at 549. The Solicitor thereby concedes that it is beyond the scope of the opinion to settle disputed property rights. It is only now, over a decade after the issuance of the opinion, that the Amoco defendants and the Department of the Interior suggest that private parties like the Tribe should be swept within the opinion's net and that their ownership of CBM was finally settled by its rationale. These assertions reach well beyond the scope of the original opinion. 70 Finally, we are convinced that the Solicitor's statutory interpretation of the 1909 and 1910 Acts is arbitrary. Even under the deference mandated by Chevron, legislative regulations are [not] given controlling weight [if] they are arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to the statute. 467 U.S. at 844, 104 S.Ct. at 2782. Review under the 'arbitrary and capricious' tag line ... encompasses a range of levels of deference to the agency. American Horse Protection Ass'n v. Lyng, 812 F.2d 1, 4 (D.C.Cir.1987). In ... typical reviews, ... we must consider whether the agency's decisionmaking was 'reasoned.'  Id. at 5 (citation omitted). An agency decision which is not reasoned persuades no more than it controls. Reasoned decisionmaking considers relevant factors and explains the  'facts and policy concerns.'  Id. (citation omitted). While the Solicitor recognized that CBM is always present in solid rock coal and is only potentially but not naturally severable from coal, he nonetheless concluded that a reservation of coal excludes CBM. 88 Interior Dec. at 540. By failing to explain how Congress could have intended to convey a substance neither known to be valuable nor severable at the time of the enactments, the Solicitor's opinion failed to consider facts which might have significantly affected its decisionmaking. Reasoned decisionmaking does not omit without explanation potentially determinative factors. 71 Thus, we are not persuaded we should defer to the Solicitor's opinion. 26 The general congressional intent of the 1909 and 1910 Acts to reserve to the United States all the benefits of the coal resources controls the determination of CBM ownership. We hold that ownership of CBM, an integral component of coal inseverable at the time of the 1909 and 1910 enactments, is vested in the Tribe as owners of the coal resource.