Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/611

 502US2$28D 02-10-99 15:12:54 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 437 (1992)

453

Opinion of the Court

ming for Summary Judgment). We decline any invitation to key the exercise of this Court’s original jurisdiction on the amount in controversy.11 Oklahoma’s argument is, in fact, no different than the situation we faced in Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U. S. 553 (1923). When Pennsylvania challenged a West Virginia statute designed to keep natural gas within its borders, there was no question but that the issue presented rose to a level suitable to our original jurisdiction: “The question is an important one; for what one State may do others may, and there are ten States from which natural gas is exported for consumption in other States. Besides, what may be done with one natural product may be done with others, and there are several States in which the earth yields products of great value which are carried into other States and there used.” Id., at 596. And so it is here. Wyoming coal is a natural resource of great value primarily carried into other States for use, and Wyoming derives significant revenue from this interstate movement. “[T]he practical effect of [Oklahoma’s] statute must be evaluated not only by considering the consequences of the statute itself, but also by considering how the challenged statute may interact with the legitimate regulatory regimes of the other States and what effect would arise if not 11

We would not, in any event, readily find the amount here to be de minimis. True, the taxes lost have amounted to less than 1% of revenues received by Wyoming, but even this fractional percentage exceeds $500,000 per year. Wyoming approaches this case viewing such a drain on its tax base year after year, and it aptly paraphrases a famous statement of Senator Everett Dirkson: “[A] half million dollars here and a half million dollars there, and pretty soon real money is involved.” Reply Brief for Wyoming 5, n. 3. See Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service 155 (S. Platt ed. 1989) (“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money”).