"As the District Court itself acknowledged, the steep-slope provisions of the Surface Mining Act govern only the activities of coal mine operators who are private individuals and businesses. Moreover, the States are not compelled to enforce the steep-slope standards, to expend any state funds, or to participate in the federal regulatory program in any manner whatsoever. If a State does not wish to submit a proposed permanent program that complies with the Act and implementing regulations, the full regulatory burden will be borne by the Federal Government. Thus, there can be no suggestion that the Act commandeers the legislative processes of the States by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program. Cf. Maryland v. EPA, 530 F.2d 215, 224-228 (CA4 1975), vacated and remanded sub nom. EPA v. Brown, 431 U.S. 99 (1977); District of Columbia v. Train, 172 U.S. App. D.C. 311, 330-334, 521 F.2d 971, 990-994 (1975), vacated and remanded sub nom. EPA v. Brown, 431 U.S. 99 (1977); Brown v. EPA, 521 F.2d 827, [452 U.S. 264, 289] 837-842 (CA9 1975), vacated and remanded, 431 U.S. 99 (1977). The most that can be said is that the Surface Mining Act establishes a program of cooperative federalism that allows the States, within limits established by federal minimum standards, to enact and administer their own regulatory programs, structured to meet their own particular needs. See In re Permanent Surface Mining Regulation Litigation, 199 U.S. App. D.C. 225, 226, 617 F.2d 807, 808 (1980). In this respect, the Act resembles a number of other federal statutes that have survived Tenth Amendment challenges in the lower federal courts.

"Appellees argue, however, that the threat of federal usurpation of their regulatory roles coerces the States into enforcing the Surface Mining Act. Appellees also contend that the Act directly regulates the States as States because it establishes mandatory minimum federal standards. In essence, appellees urge us to join the District Court in looking beyond the activities actually regulated by the Act to its conceivable effects on the States' freedom to make decisions in areas of "integral governmental functions." And appellees emphasize, as did the court below, that the Act interferes with the States' ability to exercise their police powers by regulating land use.

"Appellees' claims accurately characterize the Act insofar as it prescribes federal minimum standards governing surface coal mining, which a State may either implement itself or else yield to a federally administered regulatory program. To object to this scheme, however, appellees must assume that the Tenth Amendment limits congressional power to [452 U.S. 264, 290] pre-empt or displace state regulation of private activities affecting interstate commerce. This assumption is incorrect.

"A wealth of precedent attests to congressional authority to displace or pre-empt state laws regulating private activity affecting interstate commerce when these laws conflict with federal law. See, e. g., Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U.S. 519, 525-526 (1977); Perez v. Campbell, 402 U.S. 637, 649-650 (1971); Florida Lime and Avocodo Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 141-143 (1963); Bethlehem Steel Co. V. New York State Labor Relations Bd., 330 U.S. 767, 772-776 (1947); Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67-68 (1941). Moreover, it is clear that the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to prohibit all - and not just inconsistent - state regulation of such activities. See, e. g., City of Burbank v. Lockheed Air Terminal, Inc., 411 U.S. 624 (1973); Campbell v. Hussey, 368 U.S. 297 (1961); Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218 (1947); Transit Comm'n v. United States, 289 U.S. 121 (1933). Although such congressional enactments obviously curtail or prohibit the States' prerogatives to make legislative choices respecting subjects the States may consider important, the Supremacy Clause permits no other result. See Chicago & North Western Transp. Co. v. Kalo Brick & Tile co., 450 U.S. 311, 317-319 (1981); Sanitary District v. United States,, 266 U.S. 405, 425-426 (1925); The Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U.S. 352, 399 (1913); Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat., at 211. As the Court long ago stated: "It is elementary and well settled that there can be no divided authority over interstate commerce, and that the acts of Congress on that subject are supreme and exclusive." Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Stroud, 267 U.S. 404, 408 (1925).

"Thus, Congress could constitutionally have enacted a statute prohibiting any state regulation of surface coal mining. We fail to see why the Surface Mining Act should become constitutionally suspect simply because Congress chose to allow the States a regulatory role. Contrary to the assumption by both the District Court and appellees, nothing in [452 U.S. 264, 291] National League of Cities suggests that the Tenth Amendment shields the States from pre-emptive federal regulation of private activities affecting interstate commerce. To the contrary, National League of Cities explicitly reaffirmed the teaching of earlier cases that Congress may, in regulating private activities pursuant to the commerce power, "pre-empt express state-law determinations contrary to the result which has commended itself to the collective wisdom of Congress . . . ." 426 U.S., at 840. The only limitation on congressional authority in this regard is the requirement that the means selected be reasonably related to the goal of regulating interstate commerce. Ibid. We have already indicated that the Act satisfies this test.

"This conclusion applies regardless of whether the federal legislation displaces laws enacted under the States' "police powers." The Court long ago rejected the suggestion that Congress invades areas reserved to the States by the Tenth Amendment simply because it exercises its authority under the Commerce Clause in a manner that displaces the States' exercise of their police powers. See Hoke v. United States, 227 U.S. 308, 320-323 (1913); Athanasaw v. United States, 227 U.S. 326 (1913); Cleveland v. United States, 329 U.S., at 19; United States v. Darby, 312 U.S., at 113-114; United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., 315 U.S., at 119. Cf. United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 147 (1938) ("it is no objection to the exertion of the power to regulate interstate commerce that its exercise is attended by the same incidents which attend the exercise of the police power of the states"); accord, FPC v. National Gas Pipeline Co., [452 U.S. 264, 292] 315 U.S. 575, 582 (1942); Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co., 251 U.S. 146, 156 (1919); Seven Cases v. United States, 239 U.S. 510, 514 (1916). This Court has upheld as constitutional any number of federal statutes enacted under the commerce power that pre-empt particular exercises of state police power. See, e. g., United States v. Walsh, 331 U.S. 432 (1947) (upholding Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 301-392); NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937) (upholding National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 151-168); United States v. Darby, supra (upholding Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 201-219). It would therefore be a radical departure from long-established precedent for this Court to hold that the Tenth Amendment prohibits Congress from displacing state police power laws regulating private activity. Nothing in National League of Cities compels or even hints at such a departure.

"In sum, appellees' Tenth Amendment challenge to the Surface Mining Act must fail because here, in contrast to the situation in National League of Cities, the statute at issue regulates only "individual businesses necessarily subject to the dual sovereignty of the government of the Nation and the State in which they reside." National League of Cities v. Usery, 426."