How green is my valley? – evaluating the environment impact of products and production processes

Attempts have been made to compare the environmental impact or burden of different products or processes by equating different types of pollution. The results of these attempts are highly debated and time sensitive, due to the evolving understanding of the relative danger of different pollutants. In order to develop a method to better understand the magnitude of environmental impacts of a process or product, the relative impact on air pollution of electrical generation in forty-nine states is examined. Three pollutants (NOx, SOx, and CO2) are considered simultaneously. A State's electrical generation is ranked as efficient if its environmental burden is relatively less than at least one other state in one or more of the three categories. States that have a greater environmental burden for air pollution in all of the three categories of air pollutants are ranked as inefficient and the degree of inefficiency is calculated. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used for this analysis and is able to reduce a set of forty-nine options to one efficient option. The limitation of the DEA for analysis of environmental burdens is also discussed.