632 MOBIL OIL EXPLORATION & PRODUCING
SOUTHEAST, INC. v. UNITED STATES Stevens, J., dissenting
or indeed as of September 19, 1990, fully repudiated its obligations under the parties' contracts. As I have mentioned, it was after the enactment of the OBPA that petitioners submitted their final plan to the DOI—just as if they understood there still to be an existing set of contractual conditions to be fulfilled and expected to fulfill them. Petitioners, moreover, accepted the Government's proffered lease suspensions, and indeed, themselves subsequently requested that the suspensions remain in effect "from June 8, 1992 forward" under 30 CFR § 250.10(b)(6) (1990), an OCSLA regulation providing for continued lease suspension at the lessee's request "to allow for inordinate delays encountered by the lessee in obtaining required permits or consents, including administrative or judicial challenges or appeals." 5
After the State of North Carolina filed its formal CZMA objections on November 19, 1990 (indicating that the State believed a contract still existed), petitioners promptly sought in December 1990—again under statutory terms incorporated into the contracts—to have the Secretary of Commerce override the objections, 43 U. S. C. § 1340(c)(1), to make it possible for the exploration permits to issue. In a response explainable solely on the basis that the Government still believed itself to be performing contractually obligatory terms, the Secretary of Commerce undertook to evaluate petitioners' request that the Secretary override the State's CZMA objections. This administrative review process has, I do not doubt, required a substantial expenditure of the time and resources of the Departments of Commerce and Interior, along with the 12 other administrative agencies whose comments the Secretary of Commerce solicited in evaluating the request to override and in issuing, on September 2, 1994,
5 See App. 170-171 (letter from Leslie Burton, Senior Counsel for Mobil Oil, to Bruce Weetman, Regional Director, MMS, Sept. 23, 1992); see also App. to Brief for United States 1a (letter from Toni Hennike, Counsel, Mobil Oil, to Ralph Melancon, Regional Supervisor, MMS, Feb. 21, 1995) (requesting reinstatement of lease suspensions).
Page: Index Previous 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007