KEITH M. CASTO
MANAGING PARTNER & GENERAL COUNSEL
CARBON VENTURE PARTNERS, LLC
Keith Casto is a Managing Partner and serves as General Counsel at Carbon Venture Partners,
LLC. Carbon Venture Partners is a multifaceted investment and consulting firm that promotes the
development of green business practices and enables clients to take advantage of opportunities created
by California’s Greenhouse Gas Cap and Trade Program. In this respect, the firm evaluates and
implements projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensures that such projects comply with
the requirements established by California’s Air Resources Board. Carbon Venture Partners’ core
services include scientific evaluation and testing, emissions quantification, legal consultation, strategic
operational advice, regulatory compliance, carbon market services, and funding in the form of capital
and in-kind investments.
Mr. Casto’s recent work for Carbon Venture Partners includes advising a client that
manufactures medium-density fiberboard on its generation of compliance offset credits. Throughout
this process, he has been intimately involved in the development of legal standards to account for,
report, and verify greenhouse gas emission reductions that result from the manufacturer’s use of its
proprietary technology. In conjunction with the client’s on-going offset credit generation and
development efforts, Mr. Casto advised on and negotiated an agreement between the manufacturer and a
New York based hedge fund, in which the hedge fund agreed to provide a revenue stream of over $12
million for only a portion of the manufacturer’s projected future offset credits.
Mr. Casto’s expertise stems from his 10 years of experience at the Atlanta Regional Office of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and over 20 years in private law practice in Northern California
and Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of his career, his work has included energy and environmental
regulatory and transactional consultation, environmental and toxic tort litigation, and white collar
environmental criminal defense at the federal, state and local levels. He has also been involved with
conventional and renewable energy projects, greenhouse gas emissions credit trading, green technology
financing, and renewable energy project development, and is an international speaker on these issues.
Mr. Casto has been included in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions of The Best Lawyers in America.
His environmental regulatory and litigation practice has encompassed regulatory compliance
counseling for all environmental media, due diligence investigation in real estate transactions and
corporate mergers and acquisitions, domestic and international environmental audits, environmental
management system consultation, civil litigation, including cost recovery for soil and ground water
contamination under Superfund, and various common law theories and toxic tort defense. In addition,
he represents industrial clients, real estate developers, and individuals in defense of civil enforcement
actions and criminal prosecutions at federal, state, and local levels in California and throughout the
United States.
He has practiced extensively before a number of energy and environmental agencies throughout
California, the United States, and Europe, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the
U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the California Public Utilities
125 University Avenue Garden Suite #88 Palo Alto, CA 94301
Commission, the California Energy Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the
Regional Water Quality Control Boards, the U. S. Corps of Engineers, the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission, the State Water Resources Control Board, the California
Air Resource Board, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and numerous hazardous
material management regulatory agencies and water districts.
Memberships & Affiliations
Mr. Casto is on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Council and is a member of the Florida
Bar, the State Bar of Georgia and the State Bar of California. He is also active in the Environmental
Law Institute, the American Bar Association's Section on Environmental and Natural Resource Law and
Section on International Law, the environmental law sections of the Florida, Georgia, and California
state bars, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Santa Clara County Bar Association.
Licenses
Mr. Casto is admitted to practice before the state courts of Florida, Georgia and California; the
U.S. District Courts for the Middle, Northern, and Southern Districts of Florida, the Northern, Middle,
and Southern Districts of Georgia, and the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of California; and
the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eleventh, and Ninth Circuits.
Education
1973 J. D., Stetson University College of Law
1969 B. A., Stetson University
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