Here’s an example of a global warming consequence that wasn’t exactly on my radar, and some strange news from our neighbors to the north.

The Canadian navy has traditionally had a good relationship with the garbage on board its ships: the cold Arctic temperatures have kept the mess frozen, allowing refuse and olfactory senses to live harmoniously.

Then came global warming. The increased temperatures have caused quite the stink on Canadian naval ships, so much so that the navy is relaxing regulations and allowing ships to dump the garbage and even raw sewage at sea. A portion of an internal navy memo was reprinted by The Canadian Press:

The changes ‘help alleviate our COs (commanding officers’) concerns (with regard to) accumulated food remnants stored in garbage bags on decks during ever-increasing global warming summers…These food remnants may decay or putrefy and generate an occupational health and safety issue on board ships (that) our COs can ill afford while striving to enforce Canadian sovereignty in our internal Arctic waters."

The orders – part of the more relaxed provisions in the Arctic Water Pollution Prevention Act – allow for dumping if there are "operational" or safety reasons, or if capacity is exceeded.

These provisions, and the increased number of ships being sent north on sovereignty patrols, have many people arguing that taking the smelly garbage to a port for unloading is the worth the inconvenience, especially when the alternative is dumping it at sea.

However, navy officials say dumping would be worst-case-scenario, and that navy ships are still much more restrictive in their environmental stewardship than the law requires them to be.

The Canadian Press

Two proposed coal-fired power plants in Iowa could negate the state’s efforts to cut emissions with clean, renewable power.

LS Power Group wants to build a 750-megawatt (MW) plant near Waterloo, and Alliant Energy wants a 630 MW coal plant near Marshalltown. A new MidAmerican Energy coal plant just began operation near Council Bluffs on June 1.

Local and regional supporters of clean and efficient energy will fight the plants. Besides the economic drain of having to import coal from Wyoming, supporters argue that powering the Iowa’s ethanol plants with coal power does not make environmental sense or economic sense. Cleaner methods of production – like using a biomass gasification system to produce ethanol – is a smarter choice, noted Carrie LaSeur of the Iowa law firm Plains Justice: “Biofuels are supposed to make us less dependent on fossil fuels and reduce CO2. Using coal to power a biofuels plant has the opposite effect…Coal is a thing of the past. Why keep falling back on this old technology, when clean alternatives are out there?”

The Iowa Utilities Board still has to approve construction of both plants, but this situation is duplicated across the U.S., where 150 new coal plants are proposed. Worries about imminent carbon regulation seem to have mixed results: while plans for about two dozen coal plants have been scrapped since 2006, other companies are rushing to build before new regulations take effect, with the assumption that their plants would be grandfathered in under any new emissions requirements.

While more than half of U.S. states have renewable energy standards that require a certain percentage of power to come from renewables, the construction of a coal plant or two can quickly unravel all the good intentions. The left hand has to pay attention to what the right hand is doing here, and we can’t have it both ways if we’re serious about creating a rich, clean energy economy while slowing global warming.

Associated Press, via Quad Cities Online
Iowa Environmental Council

Nevada State Senator Bob Coffin (D-Las Vegas) wants to repeal a law that states, quite logically, that burning tires for electricity does not constitute renewable energy except in limited circumstances. Coffin believes the existing law hinders other technologies from developing and wants it rewritten to say “any system that involves creating electricity from tires” is renewable. Sounds like he took a page from President Bush’s playbook that declared nuclear power is “a renewable source of energy.”

Senator Coffin wants to count tire burning towards Nevada’s standards for renewable energy production. The state has a Renewable Energy Standard requiring all Nevada investor-owned utilities to get 15 percent of their energy from renewables by the year 2013.

Here enters commonsense: the Republican Senator from Henderson, Joseph Heck, points out that the bill doesn’t prevent the most destructive forms of tire burning from happening. For example, open burning of tires releases known carcinogens, among other nasty pollution problems, and could count as renewable energy with the change in the law.

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will vote on the bill at a later hearing.

In addition to renewable tire burning, the Committee heard other bills last week that included exempting co-ops, nonprofits, and renewable energy systems from state environmental review laws. The Committee approved that bill, despite opposition from state regulators and the Nevada Conservation league who argued it creates loopholes that would allow for a utility plant built on private land to sidestep the permitting process.

Sounds like Nevada senators have their hands full, hopefully closing up all the loopholes others are trying to tear open. This is a lesson for all of us: Good laws that encourage a clean, renewable energy system still have to be protected and safeguarded from those wed to the dirty way of doing things. Make sure your elected officials know you’re keeping an eye on them.

Associated Press
Energy Bulletin
Western Resource Advocates