Relevant Stories: Paper vs. Paper.

Here are resources one can refer to enlighten themselves on the Insurance Company vs. Papermaking Companies up here in the Fox Valley.

Here is a general summary of the situation from the Milwaukee Journal. Essentially it says the paper companies and their insurers are squabbling over the exact amount each of them is to be responsible for. The paper companies have local legislators on their side.

Here is a 2001 story from the Green Bay Press Gazette. it is an overview of how each involved paper company is involved and what it was expecting the impact to its bottom line would be. Note

Mark Wilde, a financial analyst who tracks the paper industry for Deutsche Banc Alex Brown Inc. of New York, said the company has reserves for the cleanup and has some insurance, but that "we really don't have any way to see how this insurance coverage will hold up until it is tested."

Hultgren, of Appleton Papers, said insurance will not provide significant relief for any of the paper companies.

Hmmm.

This story ran in the Appleton Post Crescent and appears to be a version of the Press Gazette Article above. Though there are differences. This article uses about $300 million for cleanup costs, the more recent Journal Article linked to above puts the costs at minimum of $600 million.

Here is the first article from an interested party. This story comes from the Insurance Journal.

"The premise is unconstitutional," Englund said. "Federal and state constitutions prohibit state interference with existing contracts. It is well within the province of legislators to prospectively tell insurers how to behave in the future. But to go back into contracts and either modify or take sides when there is a dispute in contract terms is unprecedented here in Wisconsin. [emphasis added]"

Now, I have yet to read or post advocacy from the papermakers but this is beginning to sound like an affair for the courts to settle. Since when does the legislature get involved with a contract dispute?

Don't worry, the papermakers will get their say.

This will be updated as I find more.