greenhouse

Apple's massive North Carolina data center will be powered by the nation's largest end-user-owned solar array, the company revealed today in a report on its environmental footprint.

The facility, which is being constructed in Maiden, N.C., has been awarded LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the company said in its report.

"We know of no other data center of comparable size that has achieved this level of LEED certification," the company said in its report. "Our goal is to run the Maiden facility with high percentage renewable energy mix." … Read more

The California agency responsible for protecting air quality says it will appeal a decision by a court that blocks enforcement of rules designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage alternative fuel technologies.

The Air Resources Board, part of the California Environmental Protection Agency, adopted the landmark Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCSF) last year. The regulation gives producers and refiners until 2020 to reduce the carbon footprint of their fuel by 10 percent.

Ethanol producers complained that the rules favor in-state producers and refiners because they take into consideration the carbon footprint impact of the transportation of, as well as … Read more

Chevrolet revealed more details regarding one of 16 new "green" projects the company is funding. Chevrolet is helping Metrolina Greenhouses, in Huntersville, N.C., convert its heat source from natural gas to renewable biomass, the company said in a press release.

Metrolina Greenhouses is a 6.1-million-square-foot facility--the equivalent of 120 football fields--and is now expected to burn 36,000 tons of waste wood from land clearing each year as a heating source.

The heat-source conversion project is part of a five-year, $40 million investment funded by Chevrolet.

"As a large-scale operation delivering approximately 70 million plants … Read more

Using post-consumer materials and finding more energy-efficient ways to produce vehicles are just part of Ford Motor Co.'s strategy to reduce the company's global carbon footprint.

Ford is looking at the energy use and carbon emissions of 128 global suppliers. These suppliers account for nearly 60 percent of the company's $65 billion in annual purchases.

In 2010, the automaker surveyed 35 top suppliers that make seats, steering systems, tires, and metal components. What Ford discovered was how much the companies varied in their readiness to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the 2010 survey results, … Read more

Chevrolet announced a five-year investment in 16 carbon-dioxide-reducing, ranging from biomass to wind turbines. Progress on the projects will be documented in videos over the next two months so the public can watch.

The automaker will spend up to $40 million on the projects to prevent up to 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, a little more than half of the goal of 8 million metric tons, from entering the air, Chevrolet said in a press release.

One project replaces natural gas with renewable biomass--mostly waste wood--to heat gardening plant greenhouses at Metrolina Greenhouse in Huntersville, N.C.… Read more

General Electric's latest green-technology initiative will be found in unlikely place: the inside of a refrigerator.

The industrial giant tomorrow will announce that it has changed its refrigerator manufacturing to use a gas that dramatically reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. GE will host an event at a Decatur, Ala., plant where the atmosphere-friendly gas has first been introduced into GE's refrigerators.

The gas, called cyclopentane, is used as a blowing agent for the foam insulation poured into refrigeration products during manufacture. GE said it will spend about $16 million to convert its Decatur facility, part of … Read more

Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced a bill today that would permanently stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating emissions blamed for warming the planet.

President Barack Obama would veto a bill that permanently blocks the agency from tackling climate change, administration officials have said. Obama has pledged to the world the United States will cut greenhouse gases to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced the bill, called the Energy Tax Prevention Act.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a climate skeptic who is writing … Read more

Ten eastern states in a greenhouse gas reduction program have invested more than half of their carbon permit auction proceeds, or about $404 million, in energy efficiency, the group said today.

New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, and seven other states on the East Coast belong to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which aims to trim carbon dioxide output from the area's power plants 10 percent by the end of 2018.

To meet that goal, RGGI holds quarterly auctions of permits that let the plants emit carbon dioxide. Some investors also buy the credits in the cap-and-trade program, believing … Read more

The Obama administration scaled back on demands for heavy industrial boilers to cut toxic air emissions, a sign it may be willing to compromise with businesses and Republicans on future air pollution rules.

The Environmental Protection Agency today issued final regulations on cutting air pollutants such as mercury and soot at boilers, which are basically on-site power plants at factories, and incinerators.

The EPA said the move would cost companies $1.8 billion to cut pollution, about half the amount that would have resulted from rules proposed last year.

While the rules are only a minor part of the EPA'… Read more