Still No Insurance Coverage For Climate Change Nuisance Litigation -- At Least In Virginia

Last week, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled (for the second time) that a CGL policy issued to AES Corporation did not require Steadfast Insurance to provide a defense to AES for claims brought again AES in Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil.

The decision, in AES Corporation v. Steadfast Insurance, held simply that, based on the "eight corners" of the complaint and the insurance policy, the claims against AES did not allege an "occurrence" under the CGL policies at issue.

Obviously, if climate change is real, and at least unless and until courts of last resort dismiss all actions such as Kivalina, these kinds of cases are going to proliferate, and the question of who pays such potentially massive claims will continue to be of interest to power generators, oil companies, insurance companies, and their shareholders.