LEWISTON – What was kitchen grease destined to be discarded sat in Bates College laboratory flasks Tuesday.

Students Maria Jenness, 21, and Greg Henkes, 21, explained to U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, how they were converting used cooking oil to biodiesel fuel. It was part of a “green tour” Bates was giving Michaud to show the environmental steps the college is taking.

Within a year or two, Bates hopes to take all of the 15,000 gallons of used cooking oil generated by the dining hall and turn it into biofuel used on campus, geology professor Bev Johnson explained.

“This is really exciting,” Jenness said. “It’s really great we’re trying to reduce our fossil fuel use.” The project generates excitement on campus, and “works in two ways,” she said. It makes people think about how much fossil fuel they’re using and can they reduce that, and “it gets people using renewable energy.”

Henkes agreed, calling the work important. “I’m a biology major, so this is an interdisciplinary thing for me.” Besides studying alternative fuels, he researched how clams are growing in the arctic “and how that’s relating to the change in temperature. It’s all connected,” Henkes said.

Michaud, home in Maine this week while Congress is in recess, smiled at the students’ enthusiasm about turning kitchen waste into fuel. “I used to work at Terry’s Texaco in Medway. I’d have to dump their Frialator,” Michaud said.

As a member of a Congress recently taken over by Democrats, Michaud said he’s looking forward to global warming legislation from a special committee assembled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Those proposals are expected before the July recess, Michaud said.

The evidence is clear that climate change because of human activity is real, Michaud said. “You look at Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami and what’s happening here in Maine with the mild winters, everyone’s interested in doing something.”

Continuing his Bates tour, Michaud heard from Bob Leavitt, assistant director of maintenance and operations. Last year Bates tried biofuel in 12 student houses on Frye Street. There were no problems, so this year the college expanded use to half of the campus buildings. “We haven’t experienced any negative effects,” Leavitt said

Michaud left the science building and walked to where a 152-bed dorm is under construction. When the building is complete it’ll be 25 percent more energy efficient than existing energy standards, said Pam Wichroski, associate director of physical plant.

The dorm will feature energy zones. In the common area there’ll be touch panel screens where students can see “who’s using more (electricity and water), which helps set up healthy competition,” Wichroski said. “We’re trying to make it more interactive so they see the results of what they’re using” and encourage them to conserve.

On the campus, separating the new dorm and a new commons dining hall will be a new walkway. Existing asphalt and parking spaces will come out. The goal is to discourage motor vehicle use and provide an earthier atmosphere.

Like the new dorm building, the commons under construction will also be highly efficient, built at angles to take advantage of natural light. It won’t have air conditioning but will have cooling, said Bates physical plant project manager Paul Farnsworth. Lights and faucets will have motion controls so they’ll never be left on.

The commons will also feature toilets that offer two ways of flushing. Holding the handle one way brings about a “light” flush using less water; holding the handle another way brings a “heavy” flush using more water, Farnsworth said.

Michaud’s tour ended at the dining hall, where dining services director Christine Schwartz showed off her “scrim line.” That’s where leftover food on plates is collected into a bin.

“Typically what you see is the food goes down there,” she said pointing to garbage disposal. “We’re doing two things,” Schwartz said. Bates is not sending food to Lewiston’s waste stream, “and we’re supporting a local pig farm.”

Of all the waste generated by the dining hall, 82.5 percent is given to food banks, composted, given to a pig farm or recycled, Schwartz said. “We really embrace waste.”

Michaud said he was impressed.

Using biofuels and recycling is part of the solution, he said. “We’re not going to solve global warming overnight. It’s going to take a lot of small steps to make that difference. Bates is going in the right direction.”