What is the Power Scorecard? The Power Scorecard is used in conjunction with electric retail access to rate the environmental quality of various electricity supplies now on the market. It offers an easy to understand "score" customers can use to compare the environmental quality of electricity products before they choose to either switch to a new supplier or stay with their existing electric utility company.

How does the Power Scorecard work? The Power Scorecard evaluates the environmental impacts of the generating facilities used to produce a retailer's electricity supply. The supply (or "electricity product") is scored based on the portfolio of power supplies used to produce it. Any electricity product, whether marketed as an environmentally superior product or not, can be ranked. Products will be labeled Best of Batch, Excellent, Good, Fair , Poor, and Unacceptable(dirty) and individual product scores will be available.

What does the Power Scorecard cover? The Power Scorecard measures the performance of electric generation on eight environmental criteria: global climate change, smog, acid rain, air toxics, water consumption, water pollution, land impacts and fuel cycle/solid waste. It also identifies those products that include new renewable energy technologies.

How can I use the Power Scores Scorecard? The final score can be used to compare electricity products offered in emerging competitive markets. The Power Scorecard provides information on the impacts that underlie the final score so users can see clearly how the impacts of power supplies on air, water and land contribute to a final score.

Where can I find the Power Scorecard? The Power Scorecard results will be available to consumer and environmental groups, electricity marketers and on the Internet. The Internet site will also link with other websites, including those of electric power marketers and environmental organizations. It will soon be available in Pennsylvania and California.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POWER SCORECARD

The Power Scorecard was created by the Pace Energy Project with the guidance of national environmental organizations including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Izaak Walton League, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Northwest Energy Coalition, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Principal funding for the effort comes from the U.S. Department of Energy, The Energy Foundation and The Educational Foundation of America.

The Power Scorecard is designed to augment the Green-e, a project of the Center for Resource Solutions. The Green-e certifies electricity products that have a minimum of 50% renewable content and produce below average levels of air polluting emissions in the region. A complete description of the development of Power Scorecard is provided in a separate publication, The Power Scorecard Methodology.

CONSUMER CHOICE AND CLEAN ELECTRICITY

Flip that switch. We do it every day. Every day the choices we make are creating more pollution than this planet has ever seen. What's worse, we're changing the planet's climate and ecosystems in ways that will harm our children and grandchildren even more than ourselves. Up to now, we had little choice about how much pollution our use of electricity causes. Now we have a choice. Now we can get answers to questions like: Just how clean is the electricity I am buying? How good is that energy marketer's green claim?

Consumers, state by state, are being given the opportunity to choose among electricity providers. At the same time, new marketers of electricity are entering into the competitive power markets and existing utilities are evolving to meet the challenge. Many consumers and investors, if given the chance, will support the development of cleaner and greener power supplies. However, the electric power industry is complex. Consumers and investors need tools to cut through the noise, to understand the environmental implications of their choices, and to act on their preferences.

The Power Scorecard is the tool that meets this need, helping both sellers and buyers of electricity make the most new opportunities to choose cleaner power supplies. Its use will facilitate the market for renewable energy supplies (e.g., photovoltaics, wind, biomass), by simplifying, yet underscoring, the difference in environmental impacts between renewable and non-renewable electric supply.

Pennsylvania is among the first states to open up electricity markets to competition. California's 30 million electric consumers already can select their electricity supplier. New York and many New England states are phasing in full-scale retail choice. If these markets are to include consideration of environmental impacts, consumer friendly tools like the Power Scorecard must be ready and made widely available.

WHAT THE POWER SCORECARD DOES

The Power Scorecard is an evaluation tool that grades, on a scale of zero to ten, the relative environmental impacts of the resources used to produce an electricity product. A lower score means that the product produces less pollution and impact on the environment and human health. A high score means the product creates more smog, acid rain, land degradation and polluted water supplies.

The Power Scorecard also identifies those electricity products that promise to invest in the construction of new low environmental impact renewable energy generation and those that offer other environmental enhancements such as commitments to energy efficiency and purchases of pollution credits to offset the emission impacts from specific plants.

The Power Scorecard is intended to augment the Green-e by allowing consumers to learn more about each of the supply options carrying a Green-e label. It will also provide information about non-Green e labeled products.

HOW THE POWER SCORECARD WORKS

The Power Scorecard grades the environmental quality of electricity products across the eight environmental areas most seriously impacted by electric generation technology:

AIR QUALITY
1- global climate change
2- acid rain
3- smog
4- toxic mercury emissions

WATER QUALITY
5- consumption of water resources
6- pollution of water bodies

LAND QUALITY
7- permanent plant footprint
8- solid waste disposal and fuel cycle impacts

Plant specific data in each performance area are requested from retailers. Responses are "scored" from zero to ten on performance area profiles developed from a detailed analysis of power generating technologies. If marketers can not provide data on emissions or other inputs, the Power Scorecard is designed to grade the products on the basis of technologies and fuel type.

THE SCORING SYSTEM

Scoring is calibrated with reference scores of four and ten. A score of four represents, for any performance category, either the lowest impact from fossil technology or the mid-range of impacts across all technologies. A score of ten is assigned to the most significantly severe impacts from electric generation.

The eight performance area scores for each supply resource are averaged to create an overall resource score -- and the scores of each resource supply are combined (in proportion to their product contribution) to produce a product score. Thermal and solar power supply resources are scored on the same eight air, water and land criteria; hydroelectric and wind facilities are scored on the same air criterion with water and land impacts scored by measuring site-specific performance.

Environmental enhancements available in some electric products are also scored, including supplier commitments to: 1) invest (within 12 months)in new renewable energy projects, 2) provide energy efficiency services; or 3) acquire air emission offsets .

HOW TO USE THE POWER SCORECARD

All Power Scorecard information will be available on the Internet. The Power Scorecard website will link to the websites of participating energy marketers, energy aggregators, environmental organizations, municipalities or others interested in promoting green power and to websites that provide general information about electricity.

THE SCORE: The Power Scorecard will produce The Score for each electricity product that is evaluated. Consumers can use The Score to easily compare the environmental quality of various electricity products. The Score can be disseminated through the media, in organizational newsletters, and, very importantly, in energy marketers or energy aggregators" own advertising efforts.

INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT PROFILES: The Power Scorecard is also transparent; total scores can be disaggregated into their air, water and land components allowing groups concerned more about one impact than another to determine how well a product addresses their particular concern(s).