Investigating Technical and Ecological Efficiencies in the Electricity Generation Industry: Are There Win-Win Opportunities?

Using data from the EPA's EGRID and Clean Air Markets databases, we investigate the energy (technical) and emissions (ecological) efficiencies of 437 of the largest U.S. electricity generators. We focus on fossil-fuel based electricity generating plants because of their significant impact on industry environmental performance, especially with respect to air media emissions. Data envelopment analysis is used to determine the relative technical and environmental performance of these plants and whether win-win opportunities and end-of-pipe versus in-process (reactive versus proactive) practices relate to these efficiencies. The results show that win-win opportunities in terms of simultaneous technical (operational) efficiency and ecological efficiency do not appear to exist.