ELR Citation: 41 ELR 20174
No(s). 10-5101 (D.C. Cir. Apr 29, 2011)

The D.C. Circuit upheld an Interior Board of Land Appeals decision refusing to reinstate four oil and gas leases off the California coast that were expired due to political considerations. In 1999, the Pacific Regional Director of the Minerals Management Service caused the leases, for which an energy company had originally paid the United States over $140 million, to expire. The Regional Director later testified that he based his decision solely on political considerations and that absent such considerations he would have instead extended the leases. Reviewing the matter de novo, however, the Interior Board of Land Appeals, acting without regard to political considerations and on the basis of scientific evidence, affirmed the original decision. The district court upheld that ruling. The company appealed, arguing that in order to cure the Regional Director's original decision of political taint, the Board should have adopted the decision the Regional Director says he would have made absent political influence. But because the company received all it was entitled to—i.e., an agency decision on the merits without regard to extra-statutory, political factors—the court affirmed.