interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy a critical analysis of china s policy approach to renewable energies this paper analyzes china s policy approach to renewable energies and assesses how effectively china has met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy first we briefly discuss the interactions between these two policies then we outline china s key renewable energy and renewable industrial policies and find that china s government has well recognized the need for this policy interaction after that we study the achievements and problems in china s wind and solar pv sector during 2005 2012 and argue that china s policy approach to renewable energies has placed priority first on developing a renewable energy manufacturing industry and only second on renewable energy itself and it has not effectively met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy lastly we make an in depth analysis of the three ideas underlying this policy approach that is the green development idea the low carbon leadership idea and indigenous innovation idea we conclude that chinas policy approach to renewable energies needs to enhance the interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of china s policy strategy toward renewable energies

globalization and competitive strategy in europe s vulnerable regions firm industry and country effects in labour intensive industries clark g l palaskas t tracey p and tsampra m 2004 globalization and competitive strategy in europe s vulnerable regions firm industry and country effects in labour intensive industries regional studies38 1077 1092 european integration has prompted great interest in the adjustment capacities of small and medium enterprises in regions characterized by high levels of unemployment and lower than average incomes at issue in these circumstances is the extent to which economic competitiveness can be enhanced by technological change and the resources of european and national governments relying upon the results of a detailed survey of small and medium sized firm competitive strategies in selected vulnerable regions across europe the paper focuses upon firm adjustment strategies in four labour intensive industries vulnerable to international competition it draws together the results of these surveys providing econometric and statistical analyses that demonstrate the commonalities and difference

do renewable electricity policies promote renewable electricity generation evidence from panel data using the poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimation technique this paper evaluates the effects of renewable electricity policies on renewable electricity generation using a large panel dataset that covers 122 countries over the period of 1980 2010 the results suggest that renewable electricity policies play a crucial role in promoting renewable electricity generation but their effectiveness is subject to diminishing returns as the number of policies increases there is also evidence that the effects of renewable electricity policies are more pronounced before 1996 as well as in developed and emerging market countries and the negative policy interaction effect fades with the stage of economic development lastly policy effectiveness varies by the type of renewable electricity policy and energy source only investment incentives and feed in tariffs are found to be effective in promoting the development of all types of renewable energy sources for electricity considered in this paper

interactions of factors impacting implementation and sustainability of renewable energy sourced electricity abstract two renewable energy sourced electricity res e technologies are at the forefront of the current energy transition away from fossil fuels wind and solar photovoltaic however res e must overcome implementation and sustainability challenges from factors identified in economic policy societal technological and environmental dimensions res e diffusion is also a complex problem and this critical review suggests that outcomes depend on interdependencies between factors within a single or across multiple dimensions four categories of interactivity have been identified higher capital costs or market inequalities associated with the economic dimension of res e drive supportive policies or incentives in the policy dimension in the policy policy category interactions between res e demand or supply side incentives influence electricity pricing energy market mixes or greenhouse gases emissions the society technology category examines societal technological interactions at both micro and macro scales the environment technology category details interactions between res e and the environment the technology technology category examines synergies between res e when collocated with conventional electricity generation technologies this review identified several knowledge gaps first research on res e implementation lacks system level analyses on the impact of interactions on project outcomes a well developed line of research examines interactions between multiple simultaneous supportive policies on res e implementation in developed nations however a second gap exists on the understanding of these interactions in developing nations a third gap exists on evaluating the impact of technological lock in this includes the impact on res e implementation rates when the complex economic policy governance and societal factors implicated in lock in are removed

conceptual framework for regional competitiveness budd l and hirmis a k 2004 conceptual framework for regional competitiveness regional studies38 1007 1020 the concept of territorial competitiveness has gained ground in academic policy and practitioner circles in particular urban competitiveness has generated a large literature however there is a danger that competitiveness at a territorial level becomes a conceptual chimera the essential problem is that territorially based actors and agencies seek to position and maintain the utility of their regions and subregions by reference to a set of measures and indicators that are conceptually suspect and often empirically weak the degree to which regions compete depends on a manifold set of factors the paper proposes a conceptual framework for regional competitiveness based on combining the competitive advantage of firms and the comparative advantage of a regional economy the conceptual transmission mechanism to regional competitiveness combines liebenstein s theory of x inefficiency and aggl

local acceptance of renewable energy a case study from southeast germany the european 20 20 20 goals as well as national targets for the next decade require a substantial increase in installed renewable capacity in germany while public support for such measures is high on an abstract level the situation in the local context is often very different here the impact of renewable energy might cause resistance empirical research shows that a community ownership model can have a positive effect on local acceptance our study explores whether such an effect can also be demonstrated in a community co ownership model the question is relevant since larger projects exceed the financial possibilities of most communities leaving them with only co ownership as an option the research design is based on a comparative case study utilizing a questionnaire based survey the results of the survey clearly show that a significant difference in local acceptance exists between the two cases the residents of zschadras where a community co ownership model exists are consistently more positive towards local renewable energy and also towards renewable energy in general the results provide evidence that the co ownership model is a means to reconcile local acceptance with an increased use of renewable energy in germany

making sense of the competitiveness debate the debate over national competitiveness is marked by some basic misperceptions with few exceptions those who use the term have a crude essentially mercantilist view of world trade in which competition among nations is just like competition between corporations not only do the authors and readers of reports on national competitiveness usually not understand comparative advantage they are unaware of the most basic adding up constraints economists however find it hard to believe that seemingly well informed people can really be this naive and assume that there must be more sophisticated ideas lying behind what they say the rationales offered by economists in turn offer false comfort to the would be sophisticates who like the term competitiveness they believe that they have transcended conventional economic theory when the fact is that they have failed to comprehend it in short the actual level of discussion is lower than any of the participants imagines copyright 1996 by oxford university press

a new tailored scheme for the support of renewable energies in developing countries abstract historically the promotion of renewable energy technologies in isolated areas has involved international donors or governments subsidising the initial capital investment this paper proposes an alternative support mechanism for remote villages based on the generation of renewable electricity this communication presents an evaluation of the renewable energy premium tariff rpt scheme a locally adapted variation of the feed in tariff tailored for decentralised grids of developing countries the rpt scheme stimulates the deployment of renewable energy technologies by paying for renewable electricity generated a good quality performance is secured since the support is given based on the electricity produced by renewables not for the initial capital investment the mechanism has been designed to provide a cost effective scheme for the introduction of renewable energy technologies to remote villages to provide sustainable and affordable electricity to local users to make renewable energy projects attractive to policy makers and concurrently decrease financial risk to attract private sector investment

relating life cycle assessment indicators to gross value added for dutch dairy farms sustainable dairy production requires farms that are economically viable environmentally sound and socially acceptable a low environmental impact of milk production is not necessarily associated with an economically viable farm to gain insight into a possible trade off between economic and environmental sustainability the relation between the environmental and economic indicators of dairy farms was quantified and farm characteristics that influence this relation were identified economic and environmental indicators were quantified for 119 specialized dairy farms in 2005 based on data from the dutch farm accountancy data network fadn economic indicators used were gross value added expressed per kg fat and protein corrected milk fpcm or expressed per unit of labour i e labour productivity environmental indicators used were land use per kg fpcm energy use per kg fpcm global warming potential per kg fpcm eutrophication and acidification potential per kg fpcm or per ha of land environmental indicators were deduced from a life cycle assessment high labour productivity on dairy farms was associated with low on farm energy use total and on farm land use total and on farm global warming potential and total and off farm acidification potential per kg fpcm high labour productivity however was associated also with high on farm eutrophication and acidification potential per hectare from partial least squares regression analysis it was concluded that relations between economic and environmental indicators were affected mainly by milk production per ha annual milk production per cow farm size and amount of concentrates per kg fpcm an increase in annual milk production per cow for example not only increased labour productivity reduced energy use and global warming potential per kg fpcm but also in the case of an unchanged stocking density increased eutrophication and acidification per ha to be economically and environmentally sustainable animal production in the netherlands therefore should focus on high animal productivity i e high annual milk production per cow and efficient use of feed per kg milk and moderate stocking density provided that a good animal welfare standard is guaranteed

cities regions and competitiveness turok i 2004 cities regions and competitiveness regional studies38 1061 1075 competitiveness is a complex concept used in a variety of ways and contexts the paper reviews some of the main ideas particularly as they apply to cities and regions its definition should include the relative position of a region s firms in external markets the productivity of local resources and the extent to which they are used competition takes both an institutionalized form local public agencies competing overtly for investment and other resources and more importantly a less organized form involving firms trading in wider markets there are two contrasting perspectives on the competitive advantages of city regions one emphasizes the benefits of scale and diversity that flow from concentrations of economic activity the other stresses the quality of the interactions between firms and supporting institutions recent studies suggest that the significance of localized business networks or clusters might be exagge

the unequal exchange of dutch cheese and kenyan roses introducing and testing an lca based methodology for estimating ecologically unequal exchange the theory of ecologically unequal exchange eue posits that international trade is structurally organized in a manner that allows a net transfer of resources from peripheral developing to core industrialized countries the consequence it is argued is under development in the periphery and augmented productive capacity in the core eue thus challenges the neoliberal free market argument that exchange at market prices is symmetric and fair an lca based methodology for estimating eue that holds constant the variable market price is introduced and tested on contemporary trade of dutch cheese and kenyan coffee and roses specifically the exchange of embodied land water energy global warming potential and labor is assessed the results confirm the theory s hypothesis at a fixed market price more embodied kenyan resources are exchanged for less dutch resources however kenyan roses give different results from coffee eue between countries can only be conclusively determined by considering the total biophysical trade balance but by calculating quantities of embodied resources per unit of exchange value it is possible to detect unequal exchange even at the level of individual commodities while integration of biophysical metrics alongside monetary valuation is recommended ultimately rethinking the structure policies and politics of international trade is necessary

combinations of support instruments for renewable electricity in europe a review abstract the aim of this paper is to review the combinations of res e support instruments in the european union eu using different sources of data it is shown that combinations are indeed a widespread phenomenon in the eu member states not much attention has been paid to the combinations of primary instruments with other secondary instruments for the same renewable energy technology it is found that the most frequent mixes of instruments are between feed in laws feed in tariffs and increasingly feed in premiums on the one hand and investment subsidies soft loans and tax incentives on the other in a broad sense the policy mix between primary and secondary instruments has experienced some changes over the last decade mostly related to changes in the primary instruments themselves exclusion i e ineligibility to apply for an instrument when the res e generator is already being financially supported by another instrument and explicit coordination of support under primary and secondary instruments do not seem to be common elements in these policy combinations

competitiveness of regions from an evolutionary perspective boschma r a 2004 competitiveness of regions from an evolutionary perspective regional studies38 993 1006 do regions compete as firms do how does one deal with the fact that regions unlike organizations are entities that do not act does it make sense to talk about the ability of regions to generate new variety this paper aims to address these questions from an evolutionary perspective it is meaningful to talk about regional competitiveness when the region affects the performances of local firms to a considerable degree this is especially true when the competitiveness of a region depends on intangible non tradable assets based on a knowledge and competence base embedded in a particular institutional setting that are reproduced and modified through the actions and repeated interactions of actors although regions are increasingly becoming collective players actively responding to an increasing exposure to extra regional competition the paper explains why there are serious limits in enhancin

financing energy efficiency in developing countries lessons learned and remaining challenges although energy efficiency implementation is increasingly being recognized by policymakers worldwide as one of the most effective means to mitigating rising energy prices tackling potential environmental risks and enhancing energy security mainstreaming its financing in developing country markets continues to be a challenge experience shows that converting cost effective energy savings potential particularly the demand side improvement opportunities across sectors into investments face many barriers and unforeseen transaction costs this paper draws upon selected experiences with financing energy efficiency in developing countries to explore the key factors of various programmatic approaches and financing instruments that have been applied successfully for delivering energy efficiency solutions through case studies a diverse range of institutional issues are examined related to the identification packaging designing and monitoring approaches that have been used to catalyze traditional and innovative financing of energy efficiency projects with adequate liquidity in major developing country markets and availability of modern energy savings technologies it is often the institutional issues that become a key challenge to address in order to finance and implement robust programs as further operational experience is gained increased knowledge sharing can lead to scaling up of such energy efficiency investments the paper concludes with some ideas for accelerating implementation

institutional barriers to associative city region governance the politics of institution building and economic governance in canada s technology triangle it has been argued that collaborative and associative forms of governance can enhance the economic competitiveness of cities and regions institutionalist approaches to urban and regional economic

hard and soft networks for urban competitiveness the concept of competitiveness has grown significantly and it is now common for cities regions and nations to assess improve and publicise their competitive standing vis a vis other places yet it remains rather unclear just what competitiveness is when applied to places which have objectives distinct from those of private sector organisations for whom share price and profitability serve as common metrics the blurring of the responsibilities of the public and private sectors also complicates matters with the former making increasing use of the terminology and priorities of business this paper takes the view that both public and private sectors and their interactions are sustained by networks to be effective these networks must operate at the global national regional and local scales gathering knowledge via social interaction that is through soft networks to a growing degree competitive networking also demands technological capability whether in high tech sectors smokestack industries

green net value added as a sustainability metric based on life cycle assessment an application to bounty paper towel abstract sustainability measurement in economics includes assessment of environmental and economic effects in an integrated manner in this study system level economic data are integrated with environmental impacts determined from a life cycle assessment lca of a common product we adopt a costing methodology that captures conventional costs but additionally incorporates externality costs to present a convenient easily interpretable metric green net value added gnva is a type of full cost accounting that incorporates total revenue the cost of production depreciation and environmental externalities we present externality costs disaggregated by upstream sectors full cost of production and gnva to evaluate the relative sustainability of bounty paper towels manufactured at two production facilities we found that the longer running more established line had a higher gnva the predominant components contributing to externality costs come from the stationary sources in the supply chain electricity generation 27 35 refineries 20 21 pulp and paper making 15 23 health related externalities from particulate matter pm2 5 and carbon dioxide equivalent co2e emissions are to a great extent driven by electricity usage and emissions by the facilities followed by pulp processing and transport supply chains for other facility purchases product distribution and end of life management contribute the least to the environmental health related costs

social acceptance of renewable energy innovation an introduction to the concept this paper introduces the special issue on social acceptance of renewable energy innovation it is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in tramelan switzerland in february 2006 while there are ambitious government targets to increase the share of renewable energy in many countries it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may be a constraining factor in achieving this target this is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy which has become a subject of contested debates in several countries largely due to its visual impact on landscapes this paper introduces three dimensions of social acceptance namely socio political community and market acceptance factors influencing socio political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects the third dimension market acceptance has received less attention so far and provides opportunities for further research particularly from management scholars

measuring farm sustainability and explaining differences in sustainable efficiency abstract a major objective of european agricultural policy is to have a sustainable and efficient farming sector that is applying environmentally friendly production methods policy makers aim to combine a strong economic performance and a sustainable use of natural resources therefore it is important to measure and to assess farm sustainability for a large dataset of flemish dairy farms a valuation method that is based on the concept of opportunity costs is used to calculate and analyze differences among the sample farms with respect to the creation of sustainable value but more important than measuring the creation of sustainable value is to analyze differences in sustainable efficiency therefore sustainable efficiency measures are calculated and differences in sustainable efficiency are explained using panel data an effect model captures the determinants of sustainable efficiency of the studied farms the empirical model shows that in general larger farms have a higher sustainable efficiency also farmer s age and dependency on support payments proved to be determining characteristics for observed differences in sustainable efficiency

federal policies for renewable electricity impacts and interactions abstract three types of policies that are prominent in the federal debate over addressing greenhouse gas emissions in the united states are a cap and trade program ctp on emissions a renewable portfolio standard rps for electricity production and tax credits for renewable electricity producers each of these policies would have different consequences and combinations of these policies could induce interactions yielding a whole that is not the sum of its parts this paper utilizes the haiku electricity market model to evaluate the economic and technology outcomes climate benefits and cost effectiveness of three such policies and all possible combinations of the policies a central finding is that the carbon dioxide co2 emissions reductions from ctp can be significantly greater than those from the other policies even for similar levels of renewable electricity production since of the three policies ctp is the only one that distinguishes electricity generated by coal and natural gas it follows that ctp is the most cost effective among these approaches at reducing co2 emissions an alternative compliance payment mechanism in an rps program could substantially affect renewables penetration and the electricity price effects of the policies hinge partly on the regulatory structure of electricity markets which varies across the country

interactions between the power and green certificate markets abstract the current trend of liberalising the power markets is combined with ambitious deployment plans for power production based on renewable energy supplies a new policy scheme to ensure this extension has been developed in the form of a green certificate system with a politically determined target of deployment in such a system producers of renewably based electricity receive tradable certificates in proportion to the electricity they produce the producer can thereby sell these certificates and receive additional revenue apart from the power price this paper studies the price and consumption effects of such a system with a simple model we show that the effects are ambiguous this ambiguity is caused by the interaction between the two markets therefore the green certificate system is difficult to manage if the state has parallel energy targets such as a desired deployment of renewably based energy and a stabilisation or reduction of the energy consumption in addition this complicates the regulation through a deployment target of renewably based power production as the regulator has to be aware of the different effects which follow a specific target until now these effects have not been considered in the analyses of the green certificate system when introducing the system even though it might have considerable consequences for the success of the system

network governance for competitiveness the role of policy networks in the economic performance of settlements in the izmir region some cities and regions grow faster than others and they increase their relative shares in the global economy the literature offers a wide list of factors of competitiveness most of which define individual capacities of cities recently however there has been an increasing focus on the importance of network governance and the policy networks formed between different cities this paper examines the importance of policy networks compared with other widely recognised factors of competitiveness to the economic performance of settlements in the izmir region and investigates the importance of classical competitiveness indicators and network relations on their economic performance with the use of econometric methods in conclusion it discusses the importance of policy networks in administrative reform processes and economic development policies

hybrid modeling to support energy climate policy effects of feed in tariffs to promote renewable energy in portugal abstract feed in tariffs have been the main policy instrument applied in portugal for the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources under the eu directives on energy and climate regulation in this paper we provide an empirical impact assessment of the economic and environmental effects of portugal s fits policy to promote res e generation impact assessment of policy instruments plays a crucial role on decision making process for numerical simulations we make use of a hybrid top down bottom up general equilibrium modeling approach which represents a reliable tool to analyze the complex interactions between economic energy and environmental issues related to energy policies numerical simulations confirm the empirical evidence that the fits policy implemented by portugal was both an effective and a cost efficient way to increase the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources and thus to achieve the national res e target of 45 in 2010 results show relatively modest macroeconomic impacts indicating potentially low economic adjustment costs from an environmental perspective the deployment of renewable energy source results in significant carbon emissions reductions

the exploitation of electricity production projects from renewable energy sources for the social and economic development of remote communities the case of greece an example to avoid abstract since 2009 an anarchic policy has been followed by the investors regarding the submission of a large number of applications in greece for the construction of electricity production projects from renewable energy sources r e s applications and licenses without any strategic design usually of extremely large size in relatively small insular territories often violating several environmental or cultural constraints defined in the relevant legislation applications and licenses that have been submitted without informing the local communities neglecting the existing industrial agricultural or domestic activities the land properties and consequently provoking the common sense and reverting the generally positive common attribute about r e s recorded in greece before 2008 these applications and licenses exhibit low maturity characterized by violation of environmental constraints disapproval of local communities inadequacy to procure the required land properties and lack of r e s potential measurements ultimately they exhibit very low probabilities to be implemented furthermore all these premature applications cover large geographical territories preventing thus other mature and more realistic r e s projects from applying for licensing consequently the existing applications and licenses instead of promoting the r e s development in greece continue to keep it steady this article aims at the investigation of the causes that resulted in the above described negative reality potential deficiencies of the existing legislative framework are analyzed some characteristic examples of the submitted applications or issued licenses are presented and their technical and economic feasibility is evaluated finally the article proposes measures for the rational development of r e s electricity production projects in greece these measures aim to combine the maximization of the r e s development with the protection of the local communities furthermore they aim to support the participation of local investors and public organizations in the r e s projects this perspective will maximize the social and economic benefits to the local communities

implementation of renewable energy in scottish rural area a social study abstract nowadays renewable energy is considered one of the valuable sources of energy in the energy sector it is contributing major role in fulfilling the increasing level of global energy crisis although most of study of renewable energy is done through its technological development and a few are done in its acceptance level socially in such consequences this research considers the social acceptability of renewable energy in terms of economical environmental and cultural perspectives as a test bed scottish rural areas were considered for this social study where the areas are regarded as lacking of continuous energy supply due to weak grid and socio economic growth this research investigates the intimate and sensitive nature of the social issues in rural scotland that are important in the communities when decisions are made on renewable energy supply and demand the social interactions are investigated by means of both interviewing the local residents and distributed questionnaires among them the responses from the interviews and the questions are analyzed according to the predefined criterion of renewable energy such as willingness to accept changes of life style income and pay and education and employment

current status and analysis of renewable promotional policies in indian restructured power sector a review restructuring has changed the traditional mission and mandates of power utilities in complex ways and had large impacts on environmental social and political conditions for any particular country at the same time new regulatory approaches are being found for reducing environmental impacts in restructured power sectors india has a vast supply of renewable energy resources and it has one of the largest programs in the world for deploying renewable energy based products and systems so this paper attempts to review the various policies and measures undertaken by indian government for promotion of renewable energy the aim of this paper is also to review the current policy mechanisms especially investment or generation based price driven and capacity driven mechanisms ranging from investment incentives for the development of renewable energy projects feed in tariffs production tax incentives tradable green certificates and their effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy in indian restructured power sector this will make renewable more attractive in the indian future electricity market

review of grid tie micro generation systems without energy storage towards a new approach to sustainable hybrid energy systems linked to energy efficiency abstract this paper reviews the literature on the subject albeit approaching hybrid micro generation power systems from a systems thinking st and cybernetics standpoint viewing them as dynamically complex adaptive systems cas coupled with and supplying to a set of homes termed a sustainable block in a rural setting here homeostatic regulation hr and control play a vital role in reaching efficient equilibrium towards reconciling power supply and demand response management unlike most of the work reviewed in the literature the focus here is on supervisory control of grid connected micro generation systems without energy storage aiming towards building energy efficiency thriftiness and sustainability in energy consumption building on homeostatic control hc principles first introduced by f c schweppe in 1979 the paper explores the concepts of sustainability and sustainable hybrid energy systems shes applied to micro generation focusing on operational aspects rather than on socio economic environmental or regulatory ones a concrete theoretical model for building a shes is presented for a proposed grid connected renewable microgrid the model seeks to reconcile power supply and demand towards efficient equilibrium homeostasis proposing reward based criteria for controlling renewable electricity supply and consumption in rural communities in chile discussion and recommendations are also offered stating that energy sustainability es is essentially a systems issue and one where es is first and foremost a structural organizational and operational property which is in the very nature of the system itself it is built into it rather than explained by exogenous factors

assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies the non combustion based renewable electricity generation technologies were assessed against a range of sustainability indicators and using data obtained from the literature the indicators used to assess each technology were price of generated electricity greenhouse gas emissions during full life cycle of the technology availability of renewable sources efficiency of energy conversion land requirements water consumption and social impacts the cost of electricity greenhouse gas emissions and the efficiency of electricity generation were found to have a very wide range for each technology mainly due to variations in technological options as well as geographical dependence of each renewable energy source the social impacts were assessed qualitatively based on the major individual impacts discussed in literature renewable energy technologies were then ranked against each indicator assuming that indicators have equal importance for sustainable development it was found that wind power is the most sustainable followed by hydropower photovoltaic and then geothermal wind power was identified with the lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions the least water consumption demands and with the most favourable social impacts comparing to other technologies but requires larger land and has high relative capital costs

when renewable portfolio standards meet cap and trade regulations in the electricity sector market interactions profits implications and policy redundancy emission trading programs c t and renewable portfolio standards rps are two common tools used by policymakers to control ghg emissions in the energy and other energy intensive sectors little is known however as to the policy implications resulting from these concurrent regulations especially given that their underlying policy goals and regulatory schemes are distinct this paper applies both an analytical model and a computational model to examine the short run implications of market interactions and policy redundancy the analytical model is used to generate contestable hypotheses while the numerical model is applied to consider more realistic market conditions we have two central findings first lowering the co2 c t cap might penalize renewable units and increasing the rps level could sometimes benefit coal and oil and make natural gas units worse off second making one policy more stringent would weaken the market incentive which the other policy relies upon to attain its intended policy target