Opinion ID: 406392
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Rationale for the Secretary's Action

Text: 18 The Secretary premised his decision to cancel the Fort Chaffee leases and to reject the pending Malmstrom applications on the imperative language of Section 2091.1 of the Interior Department regulations, which requires the rejection of applications if for any reason the land has not been made subject, or restored, to the operation of the public land laws. 43 C.F.R. § 2091.1 (1981). We think the Secretary's reliance on the language and meaning of the Departmental regulations was misplaced. From the time of the amendment of the statute by Congress until November 1, 1979, when the Secretary cancelled TXO's leases, the Department consistently and positively took the position that the military lands were open for leasing, in the Secretary's discretion. This interpretation of the law was expressed in rulings, letters, and instruction memoranda by department officials, including the Associate Solicitor for Energy and Resources. See App. to No. 80-2297, at 58. As mentioned, see Part I supra, the Secretary himself took that position in a letter to Senator Bumpers. And on September 12, 1979, Donald P. Truesdell, BLM Acting Assistant Director for Energy and Mineral Resources, testified before the Subcommittee on Energy Resources and Materials, as follows: 19 In view of this change in the law, even though the regulations had not been amended to reflect the change, the Eastern States Office (of the BLM) would have had no basis to reject the applications. 20 It is our view that the law itself was record notice to all interested parties and all had an opportunity to file. As has been previously stated, over 800 applications have been filed so far that we are aware of, by 25 to 30 companies. They are still coming in. These figures cover military reservations throughout the United States. 21 Fort Chaffee Hearings, supra note 5, at 52. Even if the Department had not so construed the statutory situation, we would be obliged to do so. 22 The prevention of the approval of lease applications turns on our being able to find that the lands in question were not subject, or restored, to the operation of the public lands laws. Our examination of this key phrase can proceed without our sharing the district court's deference to the Secretary's interpretation. We are not dealing with the situation where an agency's construction of its own regulation normally will defeat other plausible constructions, see, e.g., Belco Petroleum Co. v. FERC, 589 F.2d 680, 686 n.5 (D.C.Cir.1978). Instead, we are considering the proper construction of a statute, because it is necessary to interpret the 1976 Amendments in order to decide what the regulation means. 7 If the 1976 Amendment is interpreted to have subjected acquired military or naval lands to the public lands laws, then we must reject the Secretary's assertion that only his discretionary decision to open lands for leasing accomplishes that result. 23 Clearly the 1976 Amendments that removed the military base exclusion restored or made these lands subject to leasing. They clearly were put outside the regulatory prohibition by the operation of law. The Secretary urges that this plain meaning is thwarted by the impact of the explanatory material accompanying his 1977 proposal to amend Section 3101.2-1 of the regulations. The explanatory language purported to freeze any leasing pending the rulemaking by serving as an exercise of the Secretary's new authority to lease or not to lease such deposits. The Secretary exceeds his authority when he equates his discretion with the impact of the statutory amendments of 1976. 24 In the 1976 Amendments, language excluding a category of acquired lands from a statute allowing for leasing merely was stricken out of the statute. This does not mean that the lands must be leased, for that decision indisputably is in the Secretary's discretion. Nevertheless, the Secretary's decision to announce that certain lands are available cannot logically constitute subjection of the lands to the operation of the statute. The very existence of discretion-once absent with regard to lands acquired for military or naval purposes, but now present-is established by the statute and by the statute alone. There is no relevance to the fact that the various details relating to mineral leasing prescribed by statute come into play only if and when the Secretary has decided to lease certain lands. The alteration of the lands' status, from one in which leasing is prohibited to one in which it is allowed, has already been brought about by statute. 8 That alteration clearly is the result of the operation of the 1976 Amendment on the lands in question. 9 25 We find it impossible, therefore, to agree with the Secretary's interpretation of his regulation at 43 C.F.R. § 2091.1(e). To do so would require us to interpret the current section 352 of the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands in a way that defies common sense and the ordinary meaning of words. When Congress speaks, its words become law at that time, not when someone else repeats the message later on. 26 In addition, we note that an interpretation such as that advanced by the Secretary, which would allow for statutory amendments to become effective only after agency tracking regulations have been changed to reflect the statute in its current version, would work mischievous results that cannot have been intended by Congress. Persons affected by statutes implemented by agency discretion would not know where to look to determine when and to what extent the status quo had been altered. And we cannot allow an agency to ignore a statutory amendment for a time and later claim, as here, that regulations based on the unamended statute render void any actions taken in accordance with the clear language of the amended statute. 10 An agency possessed of discretion may exercise it or not; but it may not exercise it and then take back its action on the ground that, based on the duty to adhere to its own regulations irrespective of what the statute says, it lacked the discretion in the first place. 27 It may be argued that the authority to reject-that is, to refuse to accept for filing-premature applications necessarily inheres in the authority to decide which lands to lease. If specific parcels of land have not yet been made available for the granting of leases, then there may be no reason for the Secretary to allow applications covering them to be filed. Indeed, considerations of efficiency in the utilization of personnel and office space suggest that it would be in the interest of the BLM not to allow filing of applications in advance of an announcement that leasing will take place. Even if such authority is found to exist, however, it cannot serve as the basis for the Secretary's action in this case. Otherwise we would be sanctioning a retroactive exercise of discretion to which it is impossible to ascribe any rational purpose. It may well be prudent and efficient for the Secretary to refuse to accept premature applications; but accepting them for filing and processing them after September 21, 1978, when a regulation opening lands for leasing went into effect, strips a later rejection on prematurity grounds of all possible benefit to the BLM. Moreover, the effort spent in processing the application is entirely wasted; a net loss in efficiency results.