Summary/Abstract
As the private sector and government begin to spend billions of dollars to research and deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, the question of legal liability for managing short-term and long-term environmental, health and safety risks must be addressed. This paper examines potential CCS liability within a U.S. context and surveys the existing environmental and tort law liability regimes that may affect CCS. The paper concludes that while existing liability regimes are insufficient on their own to govern the CCS industry, they could provide important risk management tools and serve as safeguards to private parties and governments in the event of harm. The paper also proposes a model for long term stewardship, blending including bonding, insurance, and pooled federal funding into commercial CCS project management to better provide financial security to investors without destroying existing liability protections for those who may suffer harm from CCS. This proposal offers a starting point to develop a model to integrate liability for the nascent CCS industry.