Power, environmental politics, industry interests and party strategies: Ananalysis of the political barriers to an expansion of the CO2-tax in Norway

In this paper, we analyse three periods during the 1990s when the issue of imposition of a carbon tax on energy-intensive industries was high on the n ational political agenda in Norway. During all three periods, these industr ies managed to avoid paying a carbon tax - in the first two by way of suppo rt for their claim for exemption from important government agencies and in the third through privileged access to a parliamentary majority against a t ax proposal from a new non-labour government. This third period was particu larly interesting because it highlight the persistent strong links between the Labour Party and energy-intensive industry, which in fact formed the ce ntrepiece in Labour's post-war state-led industrialisation strategy. Howeve r, the importance of these links between the energy-intensive industry and the Labour Party begs the question of the importance of networks or 'segmen ts' connecting government agencies and business organisations in explaining policy outcomes traditionally claimed by Norwegian political scientists. I nstead, we propose that these networks or 'segments' in the policy area, th e focus of this paper, reflect causally more important party-organisation n etworks developed between the energy-intensive industries and Labour in the post-war period.