Cite as: 530 U. S. 604 (2000)
Stevens, J., dissenting
mental report on the proposed project, released on June 1 of that year.
Although the State thereafter continued to express its dissatisfaction with the prospect of exploration and development, voicing its displeasure with the Government's draft environmental findings, id., at 86-95, and rejecting petitioners' application for a separate required permit, id., at 96-97,2 petitioners nonetheless submitted a final POE to DOI on August 20, 1990, pursuant to the lease contract terms. This final plan, it must be noted, was submitted by petitioners two days after the enactment of the OBPA—the event petitioners claim amounted to (either) an anticipatory repudiation of the lease contracts, or a total breach, Brief for Petitioner in No. 99-244, p. 19 ("[I]n enacting the OBPA, the Government anticipatorily repudiated its obligations under the leases . . ."); Brief for Petitioner in No. 99-253, p. 21 ("The enactment of the OBPA placed the United States in total breach of the petitioners' leases").
Following petitioners' submission of the final POE, DOI then had a duty, under the terms of the OCSLA as incorporated into the lease contract, to approve that plan "within thirty days of its submission." 43 U. S. C. § 1340(c)(1). In other words, DOI had until September 19, 1990, to consider the submitted plan and, provided that the plan was complete and otherwise satisfied the OCSLA criteria, to issue its statement of approval. (Issuing its "approval," of course, is different from granting petitioners any "license or permit for
2 The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 86 Stat. 816, 33 U. S. C. § 1251 et seq., requires lessees to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before lessees may move forward with any exploration plan that includes discharging pollutants into the ocean, §§ 1311(a), 1342(a). The EPA cannot issue an NPDES permit, however, before the lessee has certified to the State's satisfaction that the discharge would comply with the State's CZMA requirements. Unless the Secretary of Commerce overrides any state objection arising during this process, 16 U. S. C. § 1456(c)(3), lessees will not receive the necessary permit.
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