Cite as: 504 U. S. 334 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
criminatory alternatives." Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U. S. 322, 337 (1979).5
The State's argument here does not significantly differ from the Alabama Supreme Court's conclusions on the legitimate local purposes of the additional fee imposed, which were:
"The Additional Fee serves these legitimate local purposes that cannot be adequately served by reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives: (1) protection of the health and safety of the citizens of Alabama from toxic substances; (2) conservation of the environment and the state's natural resources; (3) provision for compensatory revenue for the costs and burdens that out-of-state waste generators impose by dumping their hazardous waste in Alabama; (4) reduction of the overall flow of wastes traveling on the state's highways, which flow creates a great risk to the health and safety of the state's citizens." 584 So. 2d, at 1389.
These may all be legitimate local interests, and petitioner has not attacked them. But only rhetoric, and not explanation, emerges as to why Alabama targets only interstate hazardous waste to meet these goals. As found by the trial court, "[a]lthough the Legislature imposed an additional fee of $72.00 per ton on waste generated outside Alabama, there
5 To some extent the State attempts to avail itself of the more flexible approach outlined in, e. g., Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. v. New York State Liquor Authority, 476 U. S. 573, 579 (1986), and Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U. S. 137, 142 (1970), but this lesser scrutiny is only available "where other legislative objectives are credibly advanced and there is no patent discrimination against interstate trade." Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S., at 624 (emphasis added). We find no room here to say that the Act presents "effects upon interstate commerce that are only incidental," ibid., for the Act's additional fee on its face targets only out-of-state hazardous waste. While no "clear line" separates close cases on which scrutiny should apply, "this is not a close case." Wyoming v. Oklahoma, 502 U. S. 437, 455, n. 12 (1992).
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