The potential debut of 'emissions spinning'
Article from: OGEL 4 (2004), in Environment
Introduction
p>Energy firms used to exploit a tax loophole in the North Sea offshore sector to profitable effect. The same sector faces another potential loophole under the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS).
Liz Bossley, founding partner of UK consultancy Consilience Energy Advisory Group, writes that the once influential 15-Day North Sea Brent crude market grew out of "tax spinning", which allowed companies to elect retroactively which of their many transactions they would declare to the UK's Oil Taxation Office to be equity production for taxation purposes.