Janet E. Milne (Vermont) has published Earmarking for Environmental Damage: From Oil Spills to Climate Change. 41 Envtl. L. Rep. News & Analysis 10334 (2011). Here is part of the abstract:

This Article analyzes the role of this tax-financed Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund during the emergency response to the BP oil spill and its role in compensating for environmental and economic damages over the longer term in this particular situation. After briefly introducing the Trust Fund and the related federal liability regime, it explores the factual circumstances that defined the Trust Fund’s role in this oil spill and that are pivotal for determining who will pay for the consequences of the BP oil spill. It highlights lessons about the Trust Fund that emerge from this experience, but it also places the issue of the use of trust funds in a broader context. While the BP incident underscores the need to be prepared to address oil spills that come with reliance on fossil fuels, U.S. and global use of fossil fuels also raises the question of how to prepare for the consequences of climate change and the role that earmarked trust funds might play in that context. Consequently, the Article concludes with thoughts about what light the role of the Trust Fund in the BP spill might shed on the question of who should pay for adaptation to climate change.