Kenai Peninsula Borough v. State of Alaska

• Citation: 612 F.2d 1210
• Decision Date: 05 February 1980
• Docket Number: Nos. 77-3265,78-1443,s. 77-3265
• Parties: 10 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,456 KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH, a Municipal Corporation, Plaintiff-Cross-Complainant- Appellant, v. STATE OF ALASKA, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Cecil D. ANDRUS, Secretary of the Interior, et al., Defendant-Appellee. KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH, a Municipal Corporation, Plaintiff-Cross- Complainant-Appellee, v. STATE OF ALASKA, Plaintiff, v. Cecil D. ANDRUS, Secretary of the Interior, et al., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1210

612 F.2d 1210

10 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,456

KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH, a Municipal Corporation, Plaintiff-Cross-Complainant- Appellant, v. STATE OF ALASKA, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Cecil D. ANDRUS, Secretary of the Interior, et al.,

Defendant-Appellee.

KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH, a Municipal Corporation, Plaintiff-Cross- Complainant-Appellee, v. STATE OF ALASKA, Plaintiff, v. Cecil D. ANDRUS, Secretary of the Interior, et al.,

Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 77-3265, 78-1443.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Feb. 5, 1980.

Charles K. Cranston, Anchorage, Alaska (argued), for plaintiff-appellant; Gallagher, Cranston & Snow, Dan E. Dennis, Asst. U. S. Atty., Anchorage, Alaska, on brief.

Sanford Sagalkin, G. Thomas Koester, Juneau, Alaska (argued), for plaintiff-appellee; James W. Moorman, Washington, D. C., Alexander O. Bryner, U. S. Atty., Anchorage, Alaska, on brief.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Alaska.

Before CHAMBERS and TANG, Circuit Judges, and THOMPSON, ^* District Judge.

TANG, Circuit Judge.

These consolidated actions were brought to determine the proper distribution of revenues from federal oil and gas leases on reserved public lands within the Kenai National Moose Range, Alaska, a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Appellants herein, Kenai Peninsula Borough (Kenai) and the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Treasury, and the Comptroller General (federal defendants) seek distribution pursuant to the Act of June 15, 1935, as amended, 16 U.S.C. § 715s (1976) ¹ (Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act). The State of Alaska (Alaska) seeks distribution pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended, 30 U.S.C. § 191. The district court, in a decision reported at 436 F.Supp. 288 (D. Alaska 1977), granted summary judgment in favor of Alaska.

We affirm.

FACTUAL AND STATUTORY BACKGROUND

The opinion of the district court should be consulted for a more detailed rendering of the legislative background. A brief account will suffice here. The Kenai National Moose Range was created in 1941 by the reservation of land in the public domain. ² The Mineral Leasing Act is the statute governing mineral leases on reserved public lands generally. Under the Act, from 1957 and 1958 until the events leading to this lawsuit, Alaska received 90% Of the net revenues from oil and gas leases in the Kenai Range, while the remaining 10% Accrued to the U. S. Treasury. 30 U.S.C. § 191. ³

The Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act, 16 U.S.C. § 715s governs the distribution of revenues only from lands in the National Wildlife Refuge System. It provides that revenues from refuge lands go into a separate fund, and that these revenues then be divided between the local county in which the land is situated (25%) and the Wildlife Refuge Fund (75%). Prior to 1964, the distribution schemes of the Mineral Leasing Act and the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act were not in conflict because the list of revenue sources in the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act did Not include the sale or other disposition of Minerals on the refuge lands.

Amendments in 1964, however, made significant alterations in the distribution scheme of 16 U.S.C. § 715s(c) and added the word "minerals" to the list of revenue sources in 16 U.S.C. § 715s(a). Although the addition of "minerals" to the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act created a Prima facie conflict between the allocation schemes of the two acts for mineral revenues In 1975, in response to a request by the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Solicitor of the Interior Department issued an opinion that the 1964 addition of "minerals" to the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act should control the distribution of oil and gas revenues on reserved refuge land, superseding the contrary provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act. The Comptroller General concurred in this conclusion. 55 Comp.Gen. 117. After objection by Alaska and reconsideration by the Solicitor and the Comptroller General, the Comptroller reaffirmed the original conclusion. Thereafter these lawsuits were initiated. All federal distribution of Kenai Moose Range oil and gas revenues ceased at the end of 1976, pending the outcome of this litigation.

on reserved refuge land, the legislative history of the amendments shows no awareness of the significance of the change. The legislative history is concerned exclusively with the proposed alterations within the distribution scheme of the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act. Moreover, the Interior Department, which is charged with the administration of these provisions, over the years since 1964 until 1975 gave no studied attention to the conflict and continued to distribute the Kenai Refuge oil and gas lease revenues to Alaska according to the Mineral Leasing Act.

ISSUES

Upon appeal, on behalf of Kenai and the federal defendants, it is argued that the addition of the term "minerals" to the list of revenue sources in 16 U.S.C. § 715s(a) and the scheme of distribution contemplated in 16 U.S.C. § 715s(c) are of clear enough application that, in the absence of an expression of contrary meaning in the legislative history, the statute should be construed literally. If the amended version of § 715s is construed literally, it conflicts with the Mineral Leasing Act. And both because it is the later of two conflicting statutes and because it is the more specific of a specific and a general statute, the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act should control the distribution of these oil and gas revenues. The appellant also argues that the Interior Department and the Comptroller General 1975 opinions interpreting the statutes are entitled to deference.

Alaska, on the other hand, argues that "minerals" in the Wildlife Refuge Revenue Sharing Act should be read restrictively so that the term applies only to mineral revenues on acquired refuge lands and not to those from reserve refuge lands. Alaska cites certain incidents in the legislative history of the 1964 amendments and claims they show that Congress did not intend that the addition of "minerals" would alter prior law. Alaska also urges (1) that the appellants' literal interpretation is contrary to the Interior Department's interpretation in practice from 1964 to 1975 when revenues were distributed according to the Mineral Leasing Act; (2) that in 1976 Congress reenacted the Alaska distribution section of the Mineral Leasing Act, without modification or comment, after 11 years of agency interpretation and at a time when clarification of the statute would otherwise have been sought, thereby showing congressional intent that the Mineral Leasing Act cover All reserved land; and (3) that a literal construction here causes potential interpretive difficulties with other statutes, chiefly the Alaska Statehood Act, Pub.L. No. 85-508, 72 Stat. 339, 48 U.S.C. Note preceding § 21, and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, 43 U.S.C. § 1608.

DISCUSSION

The difficulty here results from the addition of but one word, the term "minerals," to a catalog list of revenue sources in 16 U.S.C. § 715s(a). The parties agree that this addition creates an apparent conflict between the two statutory provisions involved. The touchstone to the resolution of the conflict is to ascertain the intent of Congress: by the addition of the term "minerals" in 16 U.S.C. § 715s(a), what effect, if any, did Congress intend to have on the distribution of mineral revenues on reserved refuge lands under 16 U.S.C. § 715s(c) or 30 U.S.C. § 191?

Appellant Kenai, relying on Caminetti v. United States, 242 U.S. 470, 37 S.Ct. 192, 61 L.Ed. 442 (1917), argues that 16 U.S.C. § 715s is clear and unambiguous on its face and therefore that resort to legislative history or other extraneous sources is inappropriate. See also United States v. Wilson, 591 F.2d 546, 547 (9th Cir. 1979); Adams v. Morton, 581 F.2d 1314, 1320 (9th Cir. 1978), Cert. denied, Gros Ventre Tribe of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 958, 99 S.Ct. 1498, 59 L.Ed.2d 771 (1979). It is true that under the plain meaning of minerals and of the other provisions of § 715s, its language fairly brings the Kenai Moose Range oil and gas revenues within its scope, if § 715s is read in isolation.

However, when a plain meaning reading of a statute brings that statute into conflict with another statute and disrupts a preexisting network of statutory provisions, it is appropriate to look to the legislative history for help in ascertaining congressional intent. See Train v. Colorado Public Interest Research Group, Inc., 426 U.S. 1, 9-10, 96 S.Ct. 1938, 48 L.Ed.2d 434 (1976); Church of Scientology v. U.S. Department of Justice, 612 F.2d 417, 420-422 (9th Cir. 1979). Cf. Trans Alaska Pipeline Rate Cases, 436 U.S. 631, 643, 98 S.Ct. 2053, 56 L.Ed.2d 591 (1978); Commissioner v. Brown, 380 U.S. 563, 571, 85 S.Ct. 1162, 14 L.Ed.2d 75 (1965) (ability of courts to adopt restricted meaning of word when usual meaning leads to absurd results); League to Save Lake Tahoe, Inc. v. Trounday, 598 F.2d 1164, 1173 (9th Cir. 1979) (resort to legislative history proper when words of statute are not conclusive as to legislative intent); Get Oil Out! Inc. v. Exxon Corp., 586 F.2d 726, 729 (9th Cir. 1978) (court obligated to construe federal statutes so that they are consistent with each other). This is especially true when the face of the statute gives no indication of a congressional intent to repeal existing legislation or of a purpose, the accomplishment of which might require superseding prior statutes.

Unfortunately, the legislative history of the 1964 amendments to 16 U.S.C. § 715s sheds no direct light on the issue here. The principal purpose of the 1964 amendments was to improve the distribution scheme for revenues from acquired refuge land, so that local authorities would more likely approve of federal acquisition of wildlife refuge land. See, H.R.Rep. No....