Environmentally Preferable Power: Emerging Tool for Policy Makers

Abstract

The construction and operation of an electrical power facility can have significant environmental effects. These impacts can vary greatly depending on how and where a specific technology is applied, the energy source used and the receiving environment. Efforts by states and others to establish and promote “green” energy sources have resulted in a panoply of conflicting and confusing information. The resulting policies appear to be driven much more by politics than by scientifically verifiable information. Environmentally Preferable Power (EPP) seeks to establish a scientific basis for evaluating the “environmental footprint”of an electrical facility through life cycle assessment. It begins by utilizing a set of indices of key environmental resources. Changes in these key indices caused by a proposed or existing generator are used to determine the facility's environmental footprint. Since EPP uses a common metric, such as the production of a gigawatt hour of electricity, comparisons can be made among competing electrical facilities. Moreover, every facility can be evaluated against a baseline of electrical generators within a region or against a baseline of the policy maker’s choosing. The EPP method is scientifically based, peer reviewed and uses a common metric. Using information developed by an EPP study, a policy maker can evaluate an electrical facility based on its environmental performance; either in comparison with competing facilities or against a standard preferred by the policy maker. Given the natural attraction of a science-based approach to the issue of “green power”, EPP is starting to come into use by policy makers and others to make informed decisions. In addition, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has formed a new task for to develop a standard for addressing.