The Price of Power

To manufacture a steel beer can with an aluminum fliptop opening takes three times as much energy as making an all-steel can. A frost-free refrigerator consumes almost twice as much electric power as a conventional model. "You use power to make ice--and then use power to melt the ice," complained Microbiologist Barry Commoner as he offered these examples last week in testimony before the House Interior Committee.

"It is," he said, "ecological idiocy." Idiocy or not, the U.S. appears committed to a constant expansion of its electricity production. Last week, in a massive survey of the problems and prospects, the Federal Power Commission declared that the nation's present generating capacity of 340 million kilowatts must nearly quadruple by 1990. Meantime, the price of electricity will double (to 3.50 per kilowatt hour), reflecting higher fuel prices plus the cost of raising some $500 billion to build new power plants. As for the conflict caused by "contradictory public attitudes"--the expectation of "instant power" v. the concern for a cleaner environment--the FPC urged citizens not to underestimate the importance of maintaining adequate electricity supplies in a high-energy society.

Storecard. Even at the present level, however, electric-power plants are a major source of air pollution: 50% of the sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, 20% of the nitrogen oxides, 20% of the soot and ash. Can technology reduce this pollution? Yes, according to a new study by the Manhattan-based Council on Economic Priorities, a nonprofit organization that reports to concerned investors (churches, universities, foundations) on subjects involving corporate responsibility. But many utilities have been slow to install proven and existing equipment, the study says, or to develop alternative power sources.

The council surveyed the anti-pollution efforts of 15 private electric companies that own a total of 129 large plants and produce about 25% of the nation's power. Each was then rated against a common standard--the best that could be done--in a 550-page report entitled "The Price of Power." Getting high marks were two California utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, which have acted to minimize polluting emissions. By contrast, the Southern Co., which operates in four Southern states, and American Electric Power, which serves seven states from Virginia to Michigan, rely less on technology than on the four winds to dissipate pollutants.

All in all, the study said, 71% of the plants involved had inadequate controls on soot and 81 % had no controls at all on nitrogen oxides, a cause of emphysema. The utilities quickly attacked the report ("unscientific, distorted, partly false, and highly prejudiced," said the head of American Electric), but the plant-by-plant survey leaves no doubt that there is still much room for improvement--both in present production and in planning for the future.

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