Opinion ID: 2612394
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Set Forth Reasons for Determination

Text: The third issue advanced by ANR claims the Commission's determination was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law for failure to set forth the basis by which one set of experts' views were chosen over an opposing set of experts' views. Our initial task then is to locate the appropriate standard of review. ANR formidably argues W.S. 16-3-114(c)(ii)(A) was violated according to our holding in Mountain Fuel Supply Co. v. Public Service Com'n of Wyoming, 662 P.2d 878, 887-88 (Wyo. 1983). Mountain Fuel Supply Co. requires an agency determination reflect the reasons why one expert's view [of the facts] was chosen over the other expert's view [of the facts]. Id. at 888. In other words, an agency must cogently explain why it has exercised its discretion in a given manner,   . Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n. of U.S., Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 48, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 2869, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983). The Mountain Fuel Supply Co. requirement has been revisited and reinforced in subsequent holdings by this court. [4] See Jackson v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Compensation Div., 786 P.2d 874, 878 (Wyo. 1990) and FMC v. Lane, 773 P.2d 163, 165 (Wyo. 1989). Failure to comply with this requirement subjects an agency determination to attack as being arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law. Mountain Fuel Supply Co., 662 P.2d at 888. This basic Wyoming rule defining requirement for adequate finding and conclusion was first explicitly stated in Pan Am. Petroleum Corp. v. Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 446 P.2d 550 (Wyo. 1968). This Pan Am. Petroleum Corp., Mountain Fuel Supply Co. and Jackson approach is similar to the emerging standard of review of federal agency determinations under Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n., 463 U.S. at 43 n. 9, 103 S.Ct. at 2866 n. 9 and Bowen v. American Hosp. Ass'n., 476 U.S. 610, 626-27, 106 S.Ct. 2101, 2112, 90 L.Ed.2d 584 (1986). Our recognition of Congress' need to vest administrative agencies with ample power to assist in the difficult task of governing a vast and complex industrial Nation carries with it the correlative responsibility of the agency to explain the rationale and factual basis for its decision. Id. at 627, 106 S.Ct. at 2112 (emphasis added). Because this court must determine whether the record is sufficient to permit a court to follow the agency's reasoning from the evidentiary facts on record to its eventual legal conclusions, Jackson, 786 P.2d at 878, we apply the requirements of Mountain Fuel Supply Co., 662 P.2d at 887-88. Our analysis addresses whether the Commission's order    reflect[s] the ways in which the testimony of the [ANR] expert[s] did not satisfy accepted criteria of the Commission,   , and in the same regard the basis for its conclusion that the testimony offered by [the Woods' experts] accords with acceptable criteria   . Id., at 887-88. While the Commission's determination accepts as true most of the testimony offered by the experts testifying for Woods over the testimony offered by the experts testifying for ANR, the record satisfies this court that the findings reflect the rationale for acceptance of the Woods testimony over that of ANR. In Finding of Fact 7, the Commission understood the primary issue is whether and to what extent there is communication between the Benches. In Finding of Fact 8, the Commission finds there is communication to a substantial extent. Looking to Findings of Fact 9-20, the decision shows why Finding of Fact 8 was resolved adverse to the position of ANR. Woods had argued there was communication because the second bench South Powell well behaved like a first bench well. ANR had argued the South Powell well behaved like a second bench well. The Commission agreed with Woods and the criteria needed to make this determination are reflected in Findings of Fact 11-13. [5] In Finding of Fact 11, the Commission found the Flowing Tube Pressure (FTP) and the Shut In Bottom Hole Pressure (SIBHP) of the South Powell well were in the range of First Bench wells, not Second Bench wells; the production was in the range of First Bench wells; and the gas oil ratio fluctuation of the South Powell well was like that of a First Bench well. This was, in part, the rationale for the finding that the South Powell well behaved like a First Bench well, which was the approach adopted throughout the Commission's determination. In doing so, the Commission articulated both the basic facts and their underlying rationale to establish objective criteria  permeability, pressure, reservoir pressure, production, area drained by a well, etc. We therefore find compliance by the Commission with the requirements articulated in Mountain Fuel Supply Co.