ISES admitted that it had been forced in many cases to resort to rule of thumb in order to accommodate all energy options within a single matrix. Even so, it systematically assessed, however roughly, the environmental impact of all 14 energy options over 34 categories of environmental impact within the full energy cycle. It is interesting to speculate what impact this re- evaluation of environmental concerns among the five fuel options would have on other elements of the World Bank table. For if, as seems likely, a high environmental grade for hydro would improve at least its financing grade and quite probably its economic score too, then those same grades for gas, oil and coal would have to drop while those for nuclear would have to improve. In short, an entirely new perception of the relative merits of the five options is possible.
All groups can see the benefits of what they are trying to achieve.
However, at present, under what now seem likely to be highly skewed perceptions, other options appear more economically and socially feasible. The question of whether perceptions of gas or hydro are skewed requires full and careful study. It would greatly benefit the hydro power industry to initiate such a project. For unless it takes a far more aggressive, proactive stance to establish its own environmental credentials it will be swept away by the common misperception that gas is superior.