Background Materials for the Legal Solutions Workshop

The materials linked to below provide background for topics to be covered at the January 23, 2017 workshop. They do not represent an exhaustive collection of materials relevant to the day’s discussion.

Session I

1. Statutory and regulatory violations

• Robert S. Young et al., Western Carolina University, Coastal Hazard and Sea-level Rise Vulnerability Assessment for the Chesapeake Energy Center coal ash disposal site (Jan. 2017);
• Selected pleadings in CLF v. ExxonMobil, Case 1:16-cv-11950 (D. Mass), CLF’s suit that alleges ExxonMobil violated the Clean Water Act and RCRA by failing to adapt the Everett Terminal, located north of Boston, to rising sea levels: CLF’s Complaint; ExxonMobil’s memo in supp. of its Motion to Dismiss; CLF’s Opposition to ExxonMobil’s Motion to Dismiss;
• Adrien A. Weibgen, Note: The Right To Be Rescued: Disability Justice in an Age of Disaster, 124 Yale L.J. 2406 (2015).

2. Common law

• Peel & H. Osofsky, Sue to Adapt?, 99 Minn. L. Rev. 2178 (2015);
• Jennifer Klein, Potential Liability of Governments for Failure to Prepare for Climate Change (Aug. 2015);
• Maxine Burkett, Duty and Breach in an Era of Uncertainty, 20 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 775 (2013).
• Doug Kysar, What Climate Change Can Do About Tort Law, 41 Envtl. L. 1 (2011).

3. Environmental impact assessment and infrastructure approval

• Jessica Wentz, Considering the Effects of Climate Change on Natural Resources in Environmental Review and Planning Documents: Guidance for Agencies and Practitioners (Sept. 2016).

Session II

4. Zoning, flood mapping, building codes

• John Englender, Rising Sea Level Requires Engineers to Think Differently, 18 ASCE-EWRI Currents 1 (2016);
• U.S. GAO, Improved Federal Coordination Could Facilitate Use of Forward-Looking Climate Information in Design Standards, Building Codes, and Certifications, GAO-17-3 (Nov. 2016);
• R. M. Verchick & Lynsey R. Johnson, When Retreat is the Best Option: Flood Insurance after Biggert-Waters and Other Climate Change Puzzles, 47 John Marshall L. Rev. 695 (2014);
• Jessica Grannis, Zoning for Sea Level Rise: A Model Sea Level Rise Ordinance and Case Study of Implementation Barriers in Maryland (Georgetown Climate Center, Dec. 2012).

5. Takings claims

• David Dana, Incentivizing Municipalities to Adapt to Climate Change: Takings Liability and FEMA Reform as Possible Solutions, 43 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 281 (2016);
• Michael Pappas, A Right to Be Regulated?, 24 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 99 (2016);
• Litz v. Maryland Department of Environmental Protection, 446 Md. 254 (2016);
• Christopher Serkin, Passive Takings: The State’s Affirmative Duty to Protect Property, 113 Mich. L. Rev. 345 (2014).

6. Public utility commission actions

• New York post-Sandy distribution grid adaptation proceeding: Petition, Expert testimony/reports (Horton, Klaus), Final Order;
• Sabin Center Legal Tools for Climate Adaptation Advocacy Handbook: The Electric Grid and Its Regulators.

Session III

7. Risk disclosures, lender due diligence, expert advice

• Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (G20 Financial Stability Board, 2016);
• John R. Nolon, Land Use and Climate Change Bubbles: Resilience, Retreat, and Due Diligence, 39 Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol’y Rev. 321 (2015).

8. (Re)insurance

• Complaint in Illinois Farmers Insurance Co. et al. v. Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago et al. (Cook Cty. Cir. Ct. 2014), withdrawn (June 2014);
• Joseph MacDougald & Peter Kochenburger, Insurance and Climate Change, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 719 (2013);
• Sean Hecht, 14: Insurance, in The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change (Michael B. Gerrard & Katrina Fischer Kuh eds. 2012);
• Sean Hecht, Climate Change and the Transformation of Risk: Insurance Matters, 55 UCLA L. Rev. 1559 (2008);
• Christina Ross et al., Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse: Insurance Risk-Management Strategies in the Context of Global Climate Change, 26A Stanford Envtl. L.J. 251 (2007).

9. Professional licensing boards and practices

• Keith W. Rizzardi, Rising Seas, Receding Ethics? Why Real Estate Professionals Should Seek the Moral High Ground, 6 Wash. & Lee J. Energy, Climate, and Env’t 402 (2015).