Objective One major theory of environmental inequality is that firms follow a political path of least resistance when locating polluting facilities in low‐income and minority communities. Such communities, this theory suggests, lack the social capital that allows others to keep such facilities at bay. We will test this argument. Methods We investigate whether communities across the United States are located further from stationary sources of airborne toxins depending on their levels of social capital. Results At some scales, we found that communities with more of some types of social capital do indeed tend to be located further from such facilities, though the differences are slight. We also found that, by some measures, minority communities possess no less social capital than others, and that controlling for differences in social capital barely attenuates the associations between demographics and proximity. Conclusion The theory that differences in social capital explain environmental inequality is not supported.