Forget the arguments that global warming alarmism has no merit. The latest Bloomberg Businessweek offers (in an update of this January article) another good reason to avoid dubious cap-and-trade schemes for carbon emissions: the likelihood of criminal abuse of the system.
Europe?s carbon market is under siege. Since November, criminals have hacked the computer systems of national registries or have stolen company passwords in Romania, Italy, Greece, Austria, and the Czech Republic and made off with more than $80 million in emissions allowances. That figure is a Bloomberg calculation based on data from registries and companies that have reported thefts. European authorities are on the case, but so far the robberies remain unsolved. ?Our hypothesis is that at least the recent attacks against the EU emissions trading registries around Europe are linked to organized crime,? Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, the European law enforcement agency, said in an e-mail.
