I am looking for environmental damage bonds that have been laid
against major construction projects, particularly marine projects,
which forfeit if environmental damage occurs. If they have a bonus for
a completion without such damage, so much the better but the damage
bond is critical to our needs.
Please give me the name of the project and amount of such bonds that
have been applied to projects in the past. This is a half billion
dollar project so I am looking for any bonds but particularly those in
the range of $50 to $100 million, to make the construction companies
insure that there are no apologies, like “Oops, we did not intend
that to happen. We are so sorry. Forgive us!”
The US coral reef is under heavy stress already and loss of acres of
such reef by careless handling of mile long lengths of pipeline in an
area of high currents (the edge of the Gulf Stream) will help doom
this last remaining coral reef.
I can give a great deal more information to anyone interested but
need ASAP, the
1. Project name
2. Amount of the bond (and bonding company) which would have been (or
was) forfeited IF (or when) environmental damage occurs, but
particularly bonds in high figures like many 10s of millions of
dollars.
The deadline for this information was passed to me this afternoon via
email, on a Sunday. That deadline is tomorrow at 5 when permits are
due to be granted with a $1,000,000 bond. The half billion dollar
project would give anyone involved a check for one million to get them
out of their hair. Please help. |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
28 Sep 2003 20:18 PDT
Hello dinodivr-ga,
The type of bonds you are asking about are generally known as
environmental performance bonds. They are used quite extensively in
some countries, and I have seen them generally pegged at around 5% of
total project costs. But as far as I know they are not widely used in
the US for large construction projects.
With just a quick look around, I did find one state agency that has
imposed an environmental performance bond on a pipeline project. You
can read a press note about it here:
-----
http://www.glhabitat.org/news/glnews262.html
Wisconsin Sets Precedent with Strict Permit Conditions on Gas Company
Special construction conditions are spelled out in the permit, issued
by the DNR dated January 17, 2003, that will minimize impacts to
wetlands and rivers that will be crossed by the pipeline. The permit
also obligates the company to establish a large performance bond or
comparable financial assurance to protect against construction
problems and environmental damage, ensuring that the project is
completed according to the permit.
-----
Since you're on a very tight deadline, I wanted to get some feedback
from you at this point as to what would be most valuable to you in the
way of an answer:
--details of performance bonds as used in other countries
OR
--details of the permit conditions imposed in Wisconsin along with
descriptions of other envi performance bonds in use in the US (if,
indeed, I can find such information for sites other than the Wisconsin
project).
Let me know how best to proceed, so I can try to get you the
information you need within the tight deadline you are facing.
Also...I will leave this question unlocked, so that if other
researchers have access to information on this topic, they will be
able to post it as an answer to your question in a timely fashion.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
29 Sep 2003 07:18 PDT
...and here's a link to a large ($375 million) environmental
performance bond, but this is for site remediation (where such bonds
are more common) rather than a construction project:
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcpolicy/2phedod1.html
|
Clarification of Question by
dinodivr-ga
on
29 Sep 2003 07:47 PDT
Palafala-go
I would especially need the answers to US and Bahamian projects but
the permitting agent has been told to find examples of large bonds
against environmental damage during construction similar to the $375
million you mentioned. Do you know the companies that write such
bondfs?
My objective is to save our reefs and wetlands for their
environmental value AND for my children and grandchildren to enjoy
them as much as I have.That is why I am willing to put up personal
money for the answer. And I do realize that you are under a severe
time restraint. Thank you.
dinodivr-go
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
29 Sep 2003 12:56 PDT
Here's a link to information about a $2.5 million "reclamation bond"
used in the mining industry to provide financial assurance that the
mine site can be environmentally reclaimed after mine closure...even
if the company were to go belly-up:
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:_QVy_2fb4roJ:biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030623/lam101_1.html+%22reclamation+bond%22+million+site:.com&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
The story mentions two companies involved in providing these types of
bonds: IMA Environmental Insurance of Denver, Colorado and AIG
Environmental.
I'm posting these as I find them in the hopes the information will be
useful to you, and will arrive in time. If I come across more info,
I'll add it as well.
I don't know if any of this is satisfactorily answering your question,
though.
If you can find the time, please let me know what additional types of
details you need in order to add value to the information I've already
provided. The more I know about what--exactly--you need, the better I
can focus my research.
Best of luck in your efforts.
pafalafa-ga
|
