N.C. GreenPower, a Raleigh nonprofit that accepts public donations to subsidize green energy, is offering the equivalent of a half-price discount on its carbon offset program.

As a result, a donor can now reduce 1,000 pounds of someone else's greenhouse gas emissions with every $4 contribution. The donations go to efforts that reduce emissions of carbon dioxide or methane, typically tree-planting projects or technologies that flare off methane gas at landfills or hog lagoons.

The N.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates the carbon offsets program in this state, approved N.C. GreenPower's new price plan today. The new prices are effective retroactively to Aug. 1.

For the past three years, N.C. GreenPower had been offering to offset 500 pounds of greenhouse gases for $4, but the organization is doubling the value because the market price for carbon offsets is dropping.

Such offset programs are popular among people who are concerned about global warming and are willing to pay others to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Skeptics dismiss such programs as guilt fees that pay for programs that would have been implemented anyway.

So-called biodegradable products are likely doing more harm than good in landfills, according to research released today from N.C. State University.

A new study shows that leaving cropland unplowed between harvests releases significantly smaller amounts of a potent greenhouse gas than conventionally plowed fields. Read more about it here.

North Carolina's greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere have risen 39 percent since 1990 as the state's appetite for energy has ballooned.

That's according to Environment North Carolina, an advocacy group that helped compile the global warming data from federal government research. Environment North Carolina, based in Raleigh, issued its conclusions today as part of a concerted advocacy effort across the country to issue regional reports on greenhouse gas emissions.

The increase is caused by more cars on the road burning more fuel, and more electricity being generated by the state's coal-burning power plants. Transportation and electricity account for the majority of carbon dioxide emissions that are believed to be the major contributor to global warming.