Bruce Pasfield Discusses Legal Perils of Carbon Trading in the Daily Report
20 September 2007
Bruce Pasfield discusses some of the legal perils of carbon trading in an article in the September 20 Daily Report titled, “Carbon Future(s): A US carbon-trading market could be lucrative—or perilous.” Bruce notes that a carbon tax and carbon trading system would be susceptible to fraud and compares it to the illegal trade in ozone-depleting chemicals in the 19990s. He also pointed out that a cap-and-trade program could resemble the current sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide programs. Under those programs, “You have to report how much you emit, and obviously, there’s some incentive if you’re over the limit to potentially falsify those records and underreport.” Bruce added that the Justice Department, where he served before joining Alston & Bird, prosecutes the highest-ranking company official that knows about the falsification, which is a felony and carries a five-year prison sentence under the Clean Air Act.