Environmental statutes regulate commerce without pursuing commercial aims.

Evidence

Environmental laws inevitably regulate and affect commerce because the nation’s natural resources supply, after all, what are literally the basic ingredients of commercial life. But that is not to say that the objectives of those laws are commercial or that the reason the laws regulate certain activities is their commercial character. What frequently makes environmental laws, whether the CWA or the Endangered Species Act, so historically unique and important is that they promote a different vision of the relationship between humankind and the natural environment, one that is deliberately not commercial in its emphasis. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 900

Categorization

• XREF: Nuances the chapter 7 point that federal environmental law rests awkwardly on a commerce rationale — this explains the conceptual mismatch. — connects to: Federal environmental law rests awkwardly on a commerce rationale foreign to its aims — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 195; The dormant Commerce Clause bars states from protecting ecosystems against out-of-state harms — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 198; Federal pollution law rests on Commerce Clause because courts cannot handle modern nuisance cases — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 782 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• 1970s environmental law aimed to reorder markets, not optimize within them #expands (0.78) — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 598
• Environmental standard-setting is institutionally unsuited to the legislative arena #complicates (0.72) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 838