Cite as: 530 U. S. 604 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
statutes, then they would make the companies subject to the same unknown future requirements that the contracts' specific temporal restrictions were intended to avoid. Consequently, whatever the regulation's words might mean in other contexts, we believe the contracts before us must be interpreted as excluding the words "environmental analysis" insofar as those words would incorporate the requirements of future statutes and future regulations excluded by the contracts' provisions. Hence, they would not incorporate into the contracts requirements imposed by a new statute such as OBPA.
Third, the Government refers to OCSLA, 43 U. S. C. § 1334(a)(1), which, after granting Interior rulemaking authority, says that Interior's
"regulations . . . shall include . . . provisions . . . for the suspension . . . of any operation . . . pursuant to any lease . . . if there is a threat of serious, irreparable, or immediate harm or damage to life . . . , to property, to any mineral deposits . . . , or to the marine, coastal, or human environment." (Emphasis added.)
The Government points to the OBPA Conference Report, which says that any OBPA-caused delay is "related to . . . environmental protection" and to the need "for the collection and analysis of crucial oceanographic, ecological, and socioeconomic data," to "prevent a public harm." H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 101-653, p. 163 (1990); see also Brief for United States 32. At oral argument, the Government noted that the OBPA mentions "tourism" in North Carolina as a "major industry . . . which is subject to potentially significant disruption by offshore oil or gas development." § 6003(b)(3). From this, the Government infers that the pre-existing OCSLA provision authorized the suspension in light of a "threat of . . . serious harm" to a "human environment."
The fatal flaw in this argument, however, arises out of the Interior Department's own statement—a statement made
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