Bruce Pasfield was quoted in an iWatch News investigative report on the U.S. government’s “tepid” prosecution of Clean Air Act violators. Among the factors impeding such prosecutions is the complexity of the regulations: “Will it be so complicated that the average juror won’t be able to grasp the regulatory structure necessary to get a conviction?” Pasfield asked.
Pasfield, a former DOJ prosecutor, also discussed legal changes that were supposed to make prosecuting such cases easier, but have not proven to do so. “There was a general sense that Title V [passed in 1990] would create a more easily prosecutable set of offenses,” he said. “Except we never saw a significant increase, at least on the criminal side . . . . In looking back, I think that Title V was not the panacea that we all thought.”