Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Ore., 511 U.S. 93, 16 (1994)

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Cite as: 511 U. S. 93 (1994)

Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting

from taxes which only residents pay). More recently we upheld such differential fees under a reasonableness standard in Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. County of Kent, 510 U. S. 355 (1994), despite the fact that the fees were not precisely tied to the costs of the services provided at the publicly owned airport. We relied on our Commerce Clause analysis from Evansville, supra. We stated in Evansville:

"At least so long as the toll is based on some fair approximation of use or privilege for use, . . . and is neither discriminatory against interstate commerce nor excessive in comparison with the governmental benefit conferred, it will pass constitutional muster, even though some other formula might reflect more exactly the relative use of the state facilities by individual users." Id., at 716-717.

I think that the $2.25 per ton fee that Oregon imposes on out-of-state waste works out to a similar "fair approximation" of the privilege to use its landfills. Even the Court concedes that our precedents do not demand anything beyond "substantia[l] equivalen[cy]" between the fees charged on in-state and out-of-state waste. Ante, at 103 (internal quotation marks omitted). The $0.14 per week fee imposed on out-of-state waste producers qualifies as "substantially equivalent" under the reasonableness standard of Northwest Airlines and Evansville.

The Court begrudgingly concedes that interstate commerce may be made to "pay its way," ante, at 102 (internal quotation marks omitted), yet finds Oregon's nominal surcharge to exact more than a " 'just share' " from interstate commerce, ibid. It escapes me how an additional $0.14 per week cost for the average solid waste producer constitutes anything but the type of "incidental effects on interstate commerce" endorsed by the majority. Ante, at 99. Evenhanded regulations imposing such incidental effects on interstate commerce must be upheld unless "the burden imposed

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