Cite as: 511 U. S. 93 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
eral, Virginia L. Linder, Solicitor General, and Michael D. Reynolds, Assistant Solicitor General.†
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.
Two Terms ago, in Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt, 504 U. S. 334 (1992), we held that the negative Commerce Clause prohibited Alabama from imposing a higher fee on the disposal in Alabama landfills of hazardous waste from other States than on the disposal of identical waste from Alabama. In reaching that conclusion, however, we left open the possibility that such a differential surcharge might be valid if based on the costs of disposing of waste from other States. Id., at 346, n. 9. Today, we must decide whether Oregon's purportedly cost-based surcharge on the in-state disposal of solid waste generated in other States violates the Commerce Clause.
I
Like other States, Oregon comprehensively regulates the disposal of solid wastes within its borders.1 Respondent
†A brief of amici curiae urging affirmance was filed for the State of Indiana et al. by Pamela Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, and Arend J. Abel, Matthew R. Gutwein, and Myra P. Spicker, Deputy Attorneys General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Winston Bryant of Arkansas, Robert A. Butterworth of Florida, Chris Gorman of Kentucky, Michael E. Carpenter of Maine, Mike Moore of Mississippi, Joseph P. Mazurek of Montana, Lee Fisher of Ohio, Susan B. Loving of Oklahoma, Ernest D. Preate, Jr., of Pennsylvania, T. Travis Medlock of South Carolina, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Joseph B. Meyer of Wyoming, and James E. Doyle of Wisconsin.
1 Oregon defines "solid wastes" as "all putrescible and nonputrescible wastes, including but not limited to garbage, rubbish, refuse, ashes, waste paper and cardboard; sewage sludge, septic tank and cesspool pumpings or other sludge; commercial, industrial, demolition and construction wastes; discarded or abandoned vehicles or parts thereof; discarded home and industrial appliances; manure, vegetable or animal solid and semisolid wastes, dead animals, infectious waste . . . and other wastes." Ore. Rev. Stat. § 459.005(27) (1991). Hazardous wastes are not considered solid wastes. § 459.005(27)(a).
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