Dispersive pollution alone lets states export harm without degrading their own environment.

Evidence

Nature, without more, provided the ready means to export pollution. By their physical nature, air and water could transport pollutants to states and localities downwind and downstream from their industrial sources. A state need not, therefore, even “race to the bottom” in terms of degrading its own environmental quality to promote its competitive economic advantage over other states. It need do no more than take advantage of the natural tendency of the flow of water and the movement of air to disperse pollutants beyond its own borders. The Clean Air Act, accordingly, specifically addressed the interstate pollution issue, as did the Clean Water Act. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 427

Categorization

• XREF: Directly ties to chapter 1’s geochemical spillover claim and to the polyad’s land/place thread. — connects to: Decentralized regulation rationally pushes states to export pollution across borders — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 188; The dormant Commerce Clause bars states from protecting ecosystems against out-of-state harms — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 198