(a) The legislature finds that:

(1) insurers have issued certain insurance policies to their policyholders that may have provided coverage for environmental response costs related to qualified facilities for which their policyholders bear legal responsibility;

(2) because the commissioner is required by law to take over responsibility for environmental response actions relating to all qualified facilities, any rights to coverage based upon the insurers' contractual obligations to their policyholders to pay environmental response costs that are assumed by the state related to these facilities, to the extent the obligations may exist, are rights that should fairly accrue to the state; and

(3) the resolution of these potential insurance coverage rights should provide a fair share of the cost to the state of taking over these environmental responsibilities consistent with the insurers' potential coverage obligations to their policyholders.

(b) The purposes of sections 115B.441 to 115B.445 are:

(1) to provide the means for the state and insurers to resolve claims of the state for environmental response costs related to qualified facilities that may be covered by insurance policies of persons who bear legal responsibility for those costs; and

(2) to create a fair and efficient settlement process that provides insurers with an opportunity to settle claims based upon a reasonable approximation of the insurers' potential coverage exposure and a fair opportunity for the state to recover claims by legal action from nonsettling insurers.

History: 1996 c 370 s 1