Abstract
A method for estimating the pollution cost to society is presented that should help evaluate the relative societal benefit of new technologies. Thus, for every new process that is developed, one must factor in environmental costs to arrive at more realistic product costs. All new technologies should be compared on such a basis to arrive at the most competitive alternative. The method is illustrated with a new coal-burning power plant where reduction of SO2 emissions results in a reduction of the societal cost of electricity by 50%. The relative cost of electricity without SO2 control is 4.1c/kWh, and the cost of electricity with SO2 scrubbing is 4.2c/kWh. The implication is that it pays for a utility to scrub SO2 because it will avoid societal costs in the long run. Had the two numbers been very different, prudent management could then question the merits of either alternative.
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Shaw, H. Pollution ranking of new technologies. Journal of Systems Integration 2, 249–261 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02265077
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02265077