Internet search giant Google talked up its partnership with Duke University today in a blog post detailing the company's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

Google seeks out green projects to offset the greenhouse gas emissions its operations produce.

Among those projects is a hog farm in Yadkin County where the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative has built a waste management system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and produces electricity.

"Through this pilot, Duke is showing how these projects can make economic sense for North Carolinians and lead to dramatic reductions in emissions over the long term," wrote Jolanka Nickerson, the program manager for Google's Carbon Offsets Team. "We hope technologies like this can scale across the U.S. and world."

Google, like other Internet companies, has been criticized by some environmentalists for the amount of electricity it uses and how much greenhouse gases it is responsible for producing.
 

In a sharp challenge to the Obama administration, House Republican leaders intend to unveil legislation to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases, officials said. They expect to advance the bill quickly.

Progress Energy said today it plans to build a natural-gas power plant near Wilmington to replace three coal-burning units at the site that are being shut down to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution.
The 600-megawatt plant will cost about $600 million and begin generating electricity in 2014. The Raleigh-based electric utility filed its plan today with state regulators.
The conversion of the Sutton plant near Wilmington from coal to natural gas is part of Progress's plan to close down 11 coal-burning units at four sites in the state as it shifts to greener strategies.

State regulators said today that Progress Energy can build a natural gas-fired power plant as part of a plan that will allow Progress to shut down three older coal-burning power plants near Goldsboro.

The N.C. Utilities Commission approved the clean-burning gas plant in Wayne County under a state law enacted in July by the General Assembly and limited to this construction request by Raleigh-based Progress. The law required the commission to issue a ruling on the plant within 45 days, while the standard regulatory review would have taken at least six months for a power plant construction request.

The natural gas plant will have a capacity of 950 megawatts and is planned for operation in 2013. Progress will spend an estimated $900 million to build the plant, which still requires an air emissions permit from the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources.

A global warming bill before Congress could be a breeding ground for speculators and con artists without strict government controls, Duke University environmental studies professor Tim Profeta is warning Congress this morning.
Profeta is testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on the global warming legislation that will create a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. Profeta is the founding director of Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and a former environmental counsel for Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
The cap-and-trade market will allow emitters of carbon dioxide to trade emissions allowances with other polluters. That way a company that exceeds its annual emissions limit will have to buy allowances from other companies. The market is designed to encourage businesses to
reduce emissions so they can sell allowances.