Climate Change and the Municipal Bond Market

A number of American cities, including New York City, San Francisco, and Oakland, have sued some of the world's biggest oil companies. They allege that Big Oil knew long ago about the effects of climate change and withheld that information. As a result, they say that issues like sea level rise now threaten them and other coastal communities. Yet many of the cities alleging that they could be damaged by climate change were not so forthcoming about their self-declared vulnerability when selling municipal bonds to investors. Stephen Winterstein of Wilmington Trust discusses the discrepancy with AEI's Benjamin Zyche