Environmental Due Diligence: The Basics

Originally published January 2006

Chadbourne conducts regular training sessions for young lawyers on issues that come up in project finance transactions. The following is the transcript from a training session last fall on environmental issues that need to be covered during the due diligence phase of a project. The speakers are Andrew Giaccia, an environmental partner in the Chadbourne Washington office, and Roy Belden in the New York office. Belden moved recently to GE Energy Financial Services as a senior vice president for environmental support.

MR. GIACCIA:We will cover four topics today.The first one will give you a sense of what we mean by environmental laws. Then we will proceed to a discussion of what a due diligence process could or possibly should include.We will then talk about provisions that you see across project finance agreements and then, finally,we will conclude with a few words about structuring around environmental risks in a transaction.