This week we saw Gulf Coast residents avoid a weather disaster similar to what they faced in 2005, more evidence of global warming acceleration in the Arctic region, and some good news in the fight against dirty coal, among other news.

On Monday, Americans breathed a sigh of relief as New Orleans was spared what many believed would be a weather catastrophe of Katrina-like proportions:

This nearly deserted city appeared to have escaped threats of full-scale devastation on Monday when Hurricane Gustav came ashore 70 miles to the southwest, bearing winds and rain far less formidable than earlier forecast.

The storm smashed through the bayou country of rural Louisiana, raising fears of widespread coastal erosion and damage to fishing villages that state officials were unable to confirm Monday evening. But before making landfall, it was downgraded from a Category 3 hurricane to Category 2 when its winds slowed to 110 miles per hour, from 115 m.p.h., and state officials said they believed that their worst fears had not been realized.

Hurricane Gustav weakened to a tropical depression early Tuesday as it moved over central Louisiana, though officials said that it remained a flood threat. Early Tuesday, it was 135 miles northwest of Lafayette, La., and moving toward the northwest. It was forecast to move into northeast Texas late Tuesday.

While Hurricane Katrina caused 1,823 deaths across the Gulf region, Gustav has left behind to date a much smaller death toll of 26. The Gulf Coast is not out of the woods yet, however: Tropical Storm Hanna is headed towards the region packing winds near 65 mph, with Hurricane Ike following closely behind. While no one storm or hurricane, or even hurricane season, can be directly linked to climate change, this week we saw more scientific evidence that there is a strong correlation between climate change and extreme weather events:

A new study finds that the strongest of hurricanes and typhoons have become even stronger over the last two and a half decades, adding grist to the contentious debate over whether global warming has already made storms more destructive.

“I think we do see a climate signal here,” said James B. Elsner, a professor of geography at Florida State University who is the lead author of the paper, being published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

The study, which also found that more typical, less powerful tropical storms had not become stronger over the 26-year period studied, is consistent with other researchers’ hurricane models, Dr. Elsner said.

With oceans expected to continue warming, “one would expect more 4s and 5s,” he said of Category 4 and Category 5 hurricanes, those with maximum sustained winds of at least 131 miles per hour.

Speaking of the science of climate change, this week we saw more dramatic evidence of global warming acceleration from the proverbial canary in the coal mine: the Arctic region:

A huge 19 square mile (55 square km) ice shelf in Canada's northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, the latest sign of accelerating climate change in the remote region, scientists said on Tuesday.

They said the Markham Ice Shelf, one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic, split away from Ellesmere Island in early August. They also said two large chunks totaling 47 square miles had broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it in size by 60 percent.

"The changes ... were massive and disturbing," said Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming.

While evidence of global warming acceleration continues to mount, the federal government continues to sit on its hands. How many times does the EPA have to be sued before it will do its job properly? Apparently we won't find out the answer to that question any time soon, because the lawsuits keep on comin'!:

A dozen states and the District of Columbia announced that they would sue EPA if it does not regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries.

The states seek to expand a 2007 Supreme Court decision declaring carbon dioxide to be a pollutant that EPA can regulate under the Clean Air Act (C&EN, April 9, 2007, page 9). The states want EPA to regulate all greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, emitted by refiners.

The outcome of their request will have ramifications beyond the refining industry, foreshadowing whether other industries, including chemical manufacturing, will face mandatory limits on their greenhouse gas emissions.

The states are asking EPA to reconsider a regulation the agency issued in June that established new air pollution controls for oil refineries. That regulation did not include limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The states say EPA should have set ceilings on refineries' releases of these pollutants, given the high court's ruling. If EPA refuses to revisit the regulation, the states are poised to take their case to federal court.

Let's give credit when credit is due, however: this week the EPA did tighten emission standards for new gasoline-powered lawn mowers, weed trimmers and boat engines:

In adopting long-delayed rules that will require small gas engines to have catalytic converters like those that have been installed in cars since 1975, the Bush administration overruled the initial objections of both engine manufacturers and their GOP allies in Congress, who argued that installing the devices in small engines could pose a fire threat.

"EPA's new small engine standards will allow Americans to cut air pollution as well as grass," EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said in a statement. "These standards help fight smog in our neighborhoods and waterways as we continue to improve the environmental landscape."

The new regulations will take effect in 2010 and 2011. Once fully implemented, they will annually eliminate emissions totaling 600,000 tons of hydrocarbons, 130,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 1.5 million tons of carbon monoxide. Both hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog, which is linked to respiratory illnesses as well as premature deaths.
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Ground-level ozone also contributes to global warming, ranking as the third-biggest greenhouse gas generated by human activity, behind carbon dioxide and methane.

Laudable, but as Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch said, "This is one of the rare instances in which we're saying, 'Hey, the Bush administration is doing something really positive for the environment, just a little late.' " Nevertheless, this is a welcome development, if all-too-rare.

Finally, some end-of-week good news from West Virginia: A victory in the fight against dirty, polluting, coal-fired power plants:

Federal officials have quietly pulled the plug on funding for construction of the proposed Western Greenbrier Co-Generation plant.

U.S. Department of Energy officials now list the $416 million facility as "discontinued."

Developers have for more than five years struggled to come up with private money to match DOE funds, and environmental groups have complained that the project would pollute local air and water.

DOE spent more than $8 million on project planning, and the West Virginia Economic Development Authority lost $3 million in a loan guarantee approved in 2004 by the Wise administration.

"It's good that the federal government finally came to its senses," said Joe Lovett, director of the Lewisburg-based Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, which challenged plant permits.

"I think the local developers of the project were well-intentioned, but wrong, because the plant would have had significant negative consequences for the environment of the county," Lovett said. "And the economy of the county is significantly based on tourism, and it would have been a mistake to put a coal-fired power plant here."

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