Green Business

America took one giant step into the clean energy future today when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind offshore wind project. Finally, we can move forward with this critical tool for addressing climate change.

I spent every summer of my childhood on Cape Cod, digging for clams and collecting shells on Nauset Beach. My father still goes to there regularly, and the Cape means a great deal to my family.

The Gulf of Mexico oil well whose rig exploded and sank last week is now leaking about 1000 barrels of oil a day.

The oil remains three days of unimpeded floating from the shore, and the Coast Guard claims that wildlife impact has been minimal, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service has spotted sperm whales in the vicinity of the spill.

According a segment on Thursday's NBC Nightly News, Google is a believer in low-tech landscaping. Instead of using gas-powered machines to manage the grass and brush that grow in the fields that surround their Silicon Valley headquarters, they use goats.

Eleven people are missing after an oil rig sank off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday.

The rig started burning on Tuesday, after an explosion, and the Coast Guard was unable to put out the fire.

When we see a TV character sip on a Coke can or pull a Motorola phone out of his pocket, we're watching something called "product placement." The TV stations have sold screen-space to product manufacturers in hopes that we, the watchers, will notice the products in close connection with characters we admire and run out and buy things from Coke and Motorola.

"Behavior placement," however, is a little more subtle. It's the practice of infusing on-screen stories with actions that audiences might notice and consider and eventually adopt.

General Electric wants to put a long-lasting, energy-saving light bulb in every lamp on every bedside table.

They are calling their new product - designed to mimic the performance of a 40 Watt incandescent bulb - Energy Smart LED bulbs, and they hope to have them on the market before the end of 2010.

The US Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday that it would like to expand the rules it made last year related to greenhouse gas emissions reporting. In addition to the reporting requirements it drew up for 31 industry sectors in October 2009, the EPA now wants details on carbon dioxide and methane emissions from oil and gas production facilities.

Five Japanese companies agreed on Monday to work together to standardize fast-charge stations for electric cars. Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Subaru's parent company Fuji Heavy Industries Limited have partnered with Japan's largest electric utility, Tokyo Electric Power Company. The group's goal is first to create a standard for Japan and then push for an international standard.

Jeffrey Hollender, one of the founders of Seventh Generation, wrote an article on Friday about which businesses are (and aren't) worthy of admiration.

He wrote in response to Fortune Magazine's release of its World's Most Admired Companies list. Fortune's list ranks Apple the world's number one most admired company, and its top ten also includes Toyota, Goldman Sachs, and Wal-Mart.

On Wednesday, the US National Soccer Team plays the Netherlands in its final tune-up match before this summer's World Cup tournament.

Both teams will be wearing jerseys made of plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Korea.