Redealing the Cards: How the Presence of an Eco-Industry Modifies the Political Economy of Environmental Policies

An incumbent government maximizes its chances of being reelected. Its objective function encompasses both social welfare and political contributions. Its only instrument is a pollution tax. In an open-economy context, we introduce an eco-industry in addition to lobbies of polluting firms and environmentalists. Not only does the eco-industry lobby add a new political contribution toward a higher environmental tax, it also modifies the incentives of the usual lobbies. When the foreign environmental policy is constant, environmentalists can be in favor of a decrease in the local tax in order to reduce foreign pollution. It could also be in the interest of a vertical industrial pressure group to lobby toward more stringent environmental policy. In general, the impact of lobbying activities on the politically optimal tax is ambiguous as pressure groups push in different directions

Bioenergy grown on contaminated land – a sustainable bioenergy contributor?

A consequence of the rapidly increasing demand for bioenergy is an increasing demand for land for growing energy crops. Therefore, the utilization of arable land for this production is believed to increase. Meanwhile, larger areas of arable land are also needed to ensure the supply of food to the growing world population. Growing energy crops in areas that are not suitable for food production such as brownfields, this controversy can partly be solved and several other environmental benefits can be achieved at the same time. The total environmental impact of bioenergy cultivation on contaminated land depends on the full cultivation chain including the handling of bioenergy residues and the full chain is important in the risk- and environmental assessments. © 2015 Taylor & Francis