Quote:Sorry I missed this post earlier, 

 

As for this case if states where responsible for their own pollution, states would enter into contracts with each other. These contracts would have arbitrators to settle disputes it could very well be federal arbitrators but it would be up to the states and how they negotiated the contracts on who was responsible for what. 

 

What does Spain do when France's pollution affects there area, they work it out. The same principle would work with states, they would work it out. It would be vastly different than what you have now instead of one central power you'd have 50 localized powers pursuing their interest for their people, that was the purpose of establishing states in the first place. 

 

And what would happen if they can't agree on a contract?   Does Georgia just keep sending pollution into Florida?  Or does Florida send their air force to take out the source of the pollution with a few well-placed smart bombs? 

 

These types of disputes between states are why we scrapped the Articles of Confederation in the first place and wrote a Constitution,  which established a central government.  It was because the states squabbled over all sorts of issues like this.  

 

It seems like it would be a lot simpler and more efficient to have a national pollution law that applied to all the states.  Then you don't have 50 states all negotiating treaties with each other as if they were separate countries. 

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