In the U.S. electric power sector, government policy at the federal, state, and even local level plays an important role in determining what generating resources are built and used to serve load. This role is enacted through state-level resource planning proceedings, and through various kinds of government subsidies and support for different kinds of power projects. The overall goal is to minimize cost while serving all customer needs, complying with environmental laws, and meeting other policy objectives.

Too often left out of this equation are a number of important “hidden” costs, also called “indirect” or “externalized” costs, associated with each generation technology. These include costs to society such as depletion of resources, air and water pollution, detrimental impacts on human health and the environment, and contributions to global climate change. While direct costs (the monetary cost to build and operate a generating plant) are important to consumers, so too are these indirect costs, whether or not they can be easily expressed in monetary terms.