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Subject: Court To Hear Indian-Amoco Dispute
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 14:52:35 EST
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Court To Hear Indian-Amoco Dispute
.c The Associated Press
By RICHARD CARELLI
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court agreed Friday to referee a big-stakes
dispute between Amoco and an Indian tribe in Colorado over ownership of
methane gas contained in the coal located under the tribe's reservation.
The justices said they will decide whether a pair of 90-year-old federal laws
that gave the government ownership of the coal applied as well to methane gas
found with it. A decision is expected by late June.
For most of this century, such gas was viewed only as a dangerous element of
coal mining, but relatively recent technological developments has made coal
bed methane commercially valuable.
The Southern Ute Tribe, which undisputably owns the coal under its
reservation, contends it also owns the methane gas. But Amoco Production Co.,
a subsidiary of Amoco Corp. that has purchased the right to drill for natural
gas on the reservation, claims the methane is a natural gas it is entitled to
take.
A federal trial judge ruled for Amoco. But last July, the entire 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in a 6-3 vote and ruled for
the tribe.
In the appeal acted on Friday, lawyers for Amoco said the July ruling had
upset ``settled expectations of property rights in natural gas worth billions
of dollars.''
Amoco's lawyers argued the appeals court ``fundamentally misinterpreted'' two
laws, the 1909 and 1910 Coal Land Acts that reserved federal ownership of coal
while allowing the land surface to be bought by homesteaders.
Lawyers for the tribe and the Clinton administration had urged the justices to
reject Amoco's appeal.
``Congress has taken action in response to the court of appeals' decision, and
it now appears that the decision will directly and immediately affect only the
parties to this particular litigation,'' Justice Department lawyers told the
court.
But that assertion did not deter others in offering the justices their
unsolicited advice.
Those who filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Amoco's appeal included
the National Association of Royalty Owners, Independent Petroleum Association
of America and five Western states -- Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah
and Wyoming.
The case is Amoco Production Co. vs. Southern Ute Indian Tribe, 98-830.
AP-NY-01-22-99 1451EST
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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