Massachusetts Governor Proposes Bill to Fund PFAS Cleanup Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker filed a bill for supplemental spending in early September that includes funding for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) cleanup efforts across the state. ...
Environmental
Climate Events’ Damages Likely To Be Worse Due To Flood of Unemployment
With a high rate of unemployment due to Covid-19, people across the United States are looking for ways to save money. In some cases, this cost saving takes the form of reducing one’s personal insurance coverage. In the 2009 recession, the Insurance Research Council...
PFAS Compliance Planning Critical For Manufacturers
Covid-19 has caused numerous changes to the restaurant and food industries in the United States, from increased sanitation to expanded exhaust ventilation requirements to social distancing and more. However, one enormous change has come in a surprising area and is...
PFAS Addressed In Federal Defense Spending Bill
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) recently passed the annual spending bill for the Department of Defense, which included a number of new requirements to reduce PFAS use and remediate existing sites. Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) are a...
White House Action Regarding Proposed PFAS Bill
On January 7, 2020, the White House announced its intention to veto the PFAS 2019 Action Plan. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) are a class of over 4,000 manmade chemicals with unique physical properties that make them water repellant, oil repellant, and...
Green New Deal: Climate Legislation or Empty Promises?
With sweeping declarations identifying a need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create thousands of high-paying jobs, the proposed Green New Deal superficially appears to be the climate legislation that green advocates have been waiting for. However, upon closer...
Predicting Climate Events With Technology – Advice For Insurers
One of the greatest challenges for insuring against climate risk is the unknown severity of that risk. Insurers are grappling with the difficult task of tailoring historic risk models to insure against climate events that are increasing in frequency and severity and...
California Wildfire Insurance Plan May Protect Homeowners
After ten years of enormously destructive and increasingly severe fire seasons, the 2020 fire season in California has been the worst one yet. Over the past decade, California has seen 8 of its 10 biggest fires in its history. So far, 3.2 million acres have burned in...
Climate Lawsuit To Be Heard By U.S. Supreme Court
The United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a Fourth Circuit climate lawsuit decision this month. The City of Baltimore brought a climate lawsuit seeking to hold Chevron, ExxonMobil, and other energy companies responsible for climate change-related damage to the...
Workers Compensation PFAS Claims – Will Subrogation Apply?
Can workers’ compensation carriers bring subrogation actions for payments made to firefighters allegedly made sick from exposure to PFAS? A number of states have adopted statutory presumptions that the cause of firefighters’ cancers is from exposure to a host of...










