Comment Letter on CFTC Carbon Credit Derivatives Rulemaking
On February 16, the Boyden Gray law firm submitted a comment letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on behalf of Manhattan Institute senior fellow and director of legal policy James R. Copland, responding to the agency’s proposed guidance, “Commission Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts,” 88 Fed. Reg. 89410 (Dec. 27, 2023).
As part of the Biden administration’s “whole of government” approach to climate change, the CFTC is seeking to leverage its regulatory role overseeing derivative markets to impose new requirements on carbon credits adopted voluntarily. Copland argues that the administration’s effort to commandeer these markets toward the “objective of achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2050” exceeds the agency’s scope as authorized by Congress; and that the undefined derivatives at issue are “a far cry from the ‘wheat, cotton, [and] rice’ that are the core ‘commodities’ the CFTC was created to supervise.”
James R. Copland is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of Legal Policy.
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