The Ins and Outs of Fair “Weather Clauses” in Power Project Contracts

The last century has seen our society make incredible strides with respect to technology, but for all our advances, we as a society are still at the mercy of Mother Nature. In testimony before Congress, former Commerce Secretary William Daley stated in 1998 that “[w]eather is not just an environmental issue; it is a major economic factor. At least $1 trillion of our economy is weather-sensitive.” According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the fourteen top extreme weather-related events in 2011 cost the U.S. economy more than $55 billion. “Billion-dollar disasters of 2011.”