2001 Benchmarking Air Emissions Data

Ceres, NRDC, and PSEG have recently updated the Benchmarking Report with 2001 electric generation company and power plant data. The information, as in past Benchmarking reports, catalogues and compares air pollutant emissions of the 100 largest U.S. electric power producers for 2001. The information was compiled and analyzed in collaboration by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG), a New Jersey-based electric utility; and Ceres, a national coalition of environmental and investor groups.

The Benchmarking project, begun in 1997, uses public data to compare the emissions performance of the 100 largest power producers in the United States, focusing on four power plant pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide. These pollutants cause or contribute to global warming and to environmental and health problems including acid rain, smog, particulate pollution and mercury deposition.

The 2001 update, which includes sortable databases, can be found at:
www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/benchmarking/default.asp

The next edition will be published in early 2004. Emissions comparisons were derived from publicly available power plant generation data reported by the electricity-generating industry to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and from power plant emissions data reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).