And so the value of the land is less and the LVT drops along with it.

Of course for someone planning on putting another service station there maybe not...

But that would make the land valuable again …

It’s quite possible to have a plot of land (especially in more rural areas) that is “worth” $10k but has state mandated cleanup required that costs $60k.

What happens when there are different agricultural fields with different productivity? Where does economic rent come from in that situation? Ricardo saw LVT as a way to make agriculture fair when some land is fantastic, and other land has very few economic upsides.

Land with environmental problems is like land with a structure with negative value on it. People are still really good at valuing this. Check out home sales of the small 1000sqft cottages in Palo Alto that go for millions; the sale price is pretty much always exactly the cost of the land minus the cost to tear down the cottage.

Gas spills will function similarly.