On June 21, 2010, an expert workshop on CCS liability, oversight, and trust fund issues was carried out as part of an ongoing collaboration among Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard University Center for the Environment. The collaboration has focused on developing a legal framework to govern carbon capture and sequestration in the U.S.
The workshop brought together over 35 leading experts from the U.S. and Canada to address CCS liability, oversight, and trust fund issues. The discussions were conducted under the Chatham House rule, and each participant was present in his or her own capacity, rather than representing an organization. Topics discussed included models for addressing liability throughout the lifecycle of a sequestration project; on-the-ground perspectives on liability issues; collecting, managing, and disbursing the funds needed to manage liability; and challenges in transitioning existing and emerging state liability frameworks into a federal liability framework.
This workshop was informed by a working paper prepared by the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic entitled, “Proposed Liability Framework for Geological Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide.”