Environmental Concerns

Environmental Concerns:

Category * Specific Issue * Environmental Impact

Air Pollution * Sulfur Dioxide(SO2) * Acid rain, local health issues
* Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) * Smog
* Carbon Dioxide (CO2) * Global Warming
* Mercury * Local Health issues

Water Resources * Use of water * Consumption of water resources
* Thermal discharges * Damage to fish and other species
* River ecosystem disruption * Damage to fish and other species

Nuclear Radiation * Release of radiation/fuel * Possible source of cancer
* Accident radiation release* Source of cancer and other diseases

Land Use * Environments/Mining * Impacts on pristine areas
* Environments/Construction * Visual and economic impacts in
urban areas, disruption to
pristine land in rural areas

Environmental Considerations:
The generation of electricity results in an environmental conundrum-use of electricity at the point of consumption is very clean (for instance, electric cars are non-polluting) yet generation of electricity often has significant environmental impacts. These include air pollution, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem and land-use disruption, and the potential for release of radioactive materials. Areas of greatest concern include electric generation's contribution to acid rain, smog, global warming, and local health issues, as well as potential for radiation release.

Different types of generation have very different impacts, and environmental considerations can greatly influence how generation types are used as well as what types continue to be built. For example, environmental mitigation costs create an unattractive uncertainty for coal generation. Similarly, the potential for future political/environmental issues associated with nuclear generation have prevented any nuclear unit construction in the U.S. in the recent past. To foster cleaner generation sources, some states have moved to renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that require utilities and/or generation providers to acquire a certain percentage of their generation portfolio from renewable resources. Meanwhile,until the recent run-up in gas prices, most utilities and generating companies had favored new construction of gas-fired units in part due to the relative ease in obtaining environmental permits.