Kerr-McGee Corp. v. Hodel

Kerr-McGee (plaintiff) obtained phosphate-prospecting permits and, between 1969 and 1972, filed preference-right lease applications claiming valuable phosphate deposits in a national forest; the USGS certified the deposits' physical value, but later Interior Department regulations required showing that sale revenues would exceed development and marketing costs, including reclamation. The Forest Service's required reclamation of plant and aquatic resources was, according to the agency's own environmental studies and a 1982 interagency task force, not achievable with existing technology, and the Secretary rejected Kerr-McGee's applications on that basis. Kerr-McGee sued, claiming denial deprived it of vested mining rights, and both sides moved for summary judgment.