Disposition of Receipts From Leases of Oil and Gas Rights Within National Wildlife Refuge System

• Decision Date: 11 June 1976
• Docket Number: B-118678
• Parties: DISPOSITION OF RECEIPTS FROM LEASES OF OIL AND GAS RIGHTS WITHIN THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYSTEM - RECONSIDERATION.
• Court: Comptroller General of the United States

DISPOSITION OF RECEIPTS FROM LEASES OF OIL AND GAS RIGHTS WITHIN THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYSTEM - RECONSIDERATION.

No. B-118678

Comptroller General of the United States

June 11, 1976

1. Upon reconsideration, decision in 55 Comp.Gen. 117 (1975) is affirmed. Receipts from oil and gas leases on lands within national wildlife refuge system, and administered by fish and wildlife service, whether lands were made part of system by acquisition or by reservation from public domain, are required to be disposed of pursuant to 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715s (1970) rather than pursuant to mineral leasing act which generally prescribes disposition of receipts from leases of mineral rights in public lands. 2. Alaska native claims settlement act (ancsa) of 1971 provides that mineral lease revenues are generally to be distributed as provided in Alaska statehood ACT. Alaska statehood act prescribes no specific scheme of distribution but merely refers to Alaska's share of revenues distributed under mineral leasing ACT. Ancsa does not adopt scheme of distribution in effect under mineral leasing act in 1959, when Alaska statehood act was enacted, and therefore does not repeal by implication portion of 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715a which is apparently in conflict with mineral leasing act.

The attorney general of Alaska has asked that we reconsider our decision, matter of disposition of receipts from leases of oil and gas rights within national wildlife refuge system, 55 Comp.Gen. 117 (1975). In that decision, we concluded that receipts from oil and gas leases on wildlife refuges created by withdrawals of public lands are required to be distributed pursuant to 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715sc) (1970), rather than pursuant to the mineral leasing act, 30 U.S.C. Secs. 181 et seq. (1970). Upon consideration of the arguments of the attorney general and the comments of the solicitor of the department of the interior, we conclude that our decision must be affirmed.

Until it was amended in 1964, the act of June 15, 1935, ch. 261 Sec. 401, 49 Stat. 383, as amended, the statute which prescribed the disposition of receipts from "privileges" granted on national wildlife refuges required that 25 percent of the receipts go to the counties in which the refuges were located. No distinction was made between refuges on land reserved from the public domain and refuges acquired by purchase. The remaining 75 percent of revenues was appropriated by a permanent indefinite appropriation for the management of the refuges. H.R. Rep No. 1753, 88th cong., 2d Sess. 2-3 (1964).

Although the statute originally spoke of the sale of various specified items and "other privileges, " it did not mention minerals, oil, or gas, and it was not interpreted to include receipts from oil and gas leases. Mineral lease receipts were disposed of pursuant to section 35 of the mineral leasing act, 30 U.S.C. Sec. 191 (1970) even where the leases were of lands in wildlife refuges, and regardless of whether the lands were reserved from the public domain or acquired. Under that statute, 37-1/2 percent of lease receipts go to the state in which the land is located. Alaska receives an additional 52-1/2 percent which, in the case of the other states, GOES to the reclamation fund established by 43 U.S.C Secs. 371 et seq. (1970).

This system was altered in 1947 by the enactment of the mineral leasing act for acquired lands, 30 U.S.C. Secs. 351 et seq. (1970). That act provides for disposition of receipts from oil and gas leases on acquired lands "*** in the same manner as prescribed for other receipts from the lands affected by the lease ***." 30 U.S.C. Sec. 355 (1970). Thus, after the enactment of the mineral leasing act for acquired lands, oil and gas lease receipts from reserved wildlife refuge lands remained subject to distribution pursuant to the mineral leasing act, but oil and gas lease receipts from acquired wildlife refuge lands were thereafter to be distributed in the same manner as other receipts from those lands, i.e., in the manner prescribed by the act of June 15, 1935, which was codified as 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715s.

The 1964 amendment to section 715s of title 16 (the act of August 30, 1964, pub. L. No. 88-523, 78 Stat. 701) established a new scheme of distribution for refuge receipts from acquired lands, and added "minerals" to the list in the statute of sources of refuge receipts. We held, in 55 Comp.Gen. 117, supra, that the addition of "minerals" meant that, thereafter, receipts from oil and gas leases on refuge lands, whether reserved or acquired, were required to be distributed pursuant to 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715s, as amended, rather than pursuant to the mineral leasing ACT. The effect of this interpretation with respect to mineral receipts from reserved lands in Alaska is that, instead of 90 percent of the receipts going to the state as was the case under the mineral leasing act, 25 percent is to go to the counties in which the lands are located, with the remainder going to a national wildlife refuge fund.

The attorney general of Alaska now contends that our interpretation is not correct. Rather, he argues, "*** congress intended (BY the 1964 amendment of 16 U.S.C. Sec 715s) to continue the scheme for disposition of funds which was in existence prior to the amendment ***, " and that the 1964 amendment was intended to apply only to wildlife refuges created from acquired lands.

The attorney general states, and we agree, that prior to the 1964 amendment, oil and gas lease revenues were not included in the coverage of 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715s, and that to the extent the counties benefitted from oil and gas lease revenues from wildlife refuges prior to 1964, it was only with respect to acquired lands, by virtue of 30 U.S.C. Sec. 355, supra. The attorney general then notes that the only specific discussion of oil and gas lease revenues in the legislative history of the 1964 amendment to 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715s is in the context of revenues from refuges created on acquired lands. He continues:

"In the light of the above, the question presented by the 1964 amendment to section 715s is whether by adding the term 'mineral' congress intended to confirm the existing practice of distributing oil and gas revenues from wildlife refuges created from acquired lands pursuant to section 715s, and oil and gas revenues from wildlife refuges created from reserved public domain pursuant to the mineral leasing act of 1920; or did congress intend to change the prior practice, so that oil and gas revenues from all wildlife refuges, regardless of their manner of creation, would be distributed pursuant to section 715s.

"Since distribution of revenues under the mineral leasing act and under section 715s is substantially different, in one case payments being made to states and the reclamation fund and in the other to counties and the wildlife refuge fund, it is highly unlikely that congress would have intended to repeal the mineral leasing act and replace it with section 715s without any discussion or comment by any of the parties affected. Yet, there is not one single acknowledgement in the legislative history of a CHANGE. Indeed, the legislative history makes clear beyond peradventure that none of the parties expected any change in the distribution of revenues from wildlife refuges reserved from the public domain.

"Certainly the department of the interior, which sponsored one of the bills which added the term 'minerals, ' did not envision any change in the treatment of revenues from reserved wildlife refuges. The secretary of the interior testified that 'all of the revenues from refuge operations on acquired lands would be placed in a pool for equitable sharing by all the counties in which we have units of the national wildlife refuge system... As to reserved public lands, there would be no change in the present payment of 25 percent of net receipts from such lands' ***."

The 1964 amendment to 16 U.S.C. Sec. 715s reads in pertinent part as follows:

."(a) beginning with the next full fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter all revenues received by the secretary of the interior from the sale or other disposition of animals, timber, hay, grass, or other products of the soil, minerals, shells, sand, or gravel, from other privileges, *** during each fiscal year in connection with the operation and management of those areas of the national wildlife refuge system that are solely or primarily administered by him, through the united states fish and wildlife service, shall be covered into the united states treasury and be reserved in a separate fund for disposition as hereafter prescribed. *** the national wildlife refuge system hereafter referred to as the 'system' includes those lands and waters administered by the secretary as wildlife refuges, wildlife ranges, game ranges, wildlife management areas, and waterfowl production areas established under any law, proclamation, executive or public land order.

"(c) the secretary, at the end of each fiscal year shall pay, out of the net receipts in the fund after payment of necessary expenses for such fiscal year, which funds shall be expended solely for the benefit of public schools and roads as follows:

"(1) to each county in which reserved public lands in an area of the system are situated, an amount equal to 25 per centum of the net receipts collected by the secretary from such reserved public lands in that particular area of the system ***; and

"(2) to each county in which areas in the system are situated that have been acquired in fee by the united states, either (A) three fourths of 1 per centum of the cost of the areas, *** or (B) 25 per centum of the net receipts collected by the secretary from such acquired lands in that particular area of the system within such counties, whichever is greater.

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