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Competition: Rethinking the "Race-to-the-Bottom" Rationale for Federal Environmental Regulation, 67 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 1210, 1222 (1992) ("The presence of interstate externalities is a powerful reason for intervention at the federal level"); cf. Hodel, 452 U. S., at 281-282 (deferring to Congress' finding that nationwide standards were "essential" in order to avoid "destructive interstate competition" that might undermine environmental standards). Identifying the Corps' jurisdiction by reference to waters that serve as habitat for birds that migrate over state lines also satisfies this Court's expressed desire for some "jurisdictional element" that limits federal activity to its proper scope. Morrison, 529 U. S., at 612.
The power to regulate commerce among the several States necessarily and properly includes the power to preserve the natural resources that generate such commerce. Cf. Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas, 458 U. S. 941, 953 (1982) (holding water to be an "article of commerce"). Migratory birds, and the waters on which they rely, are such resources. Moreover, the protection of migratory birds is a well-established federal responsibility. As Justice Holmes noted in Missouri v. Holland, the federal interest in protecting these birds is of "the first magnitude." 252 U. S., at 435. Because of their transitory nature, they "can be protected only by national action." Ibid.
Whether it is necessary or appropriate to refuse to allow petitioner to fill those ponds is a question on which we have no voice. Whether the Federal Government has the power to require such permission, however, is a question that is easily answered. If, as it does, the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to regulate particular "activities causing air or water pollution, or other environmental hazards that may have effects in more than one State," Hodel, 452 U. S., at 282, it also empowers Congress to control individual actions that, in the aggregate, would have the same effect.
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