Senate Bill 375 opens a new front in the state’s battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: land use.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) begins auctioning off permits today for the carbon dioxide that can be produced by more than 200 electricity generators in 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The event comes on the heels of a key development of the Western Climate Initiative, another cap-and-trade plan being pushed by seven states and four Canadian provinces.

Banking and software company Misys launched the "carbon management equivalent to TurboTax" this week at the Corporate Climate Response conference in Chicago. The Open Carbon World portal also offers policy news, a community forum, carbon library and carbon Wiki to bring companies up to speed on carbon and help them enter the market.

It's an evolving practice filled with pitfalls and the expense of accurately measuring product carbon footprints across supply chains spanning continents. If companies can clear that hurdle, they then face the challenge of conveying the information's significance to a general public that doesn't yet understanding its meaning.

Eight wineries will buy renewable energy credits as part of a program called Green My Vino, a Facebook application that lets users lead the charge.

FoodServiceWarehouse.com launches its Going Green Program today for restaurant operators interested in meeting LEED standards, or scaling back operating costs at a time when rising energy and food prices are threatening profit margins.

The regulations -- deemed the world's strictest -- mean the roughly 2,000 ships that sail into state ports each year must start using low-sulfur fuel in 2009 instead of cheap but dirty bunker fuel.

The Western Climate Initiative unveiled a draft plan Wednesday for what will become North America's largest carbon cap and trade system set to go into effect in 2012.

Former Vice President Al Gore called on the U.S. to make an Apollo-like leap to produce all of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources within a decade to bolster national security, the flailing economy and avoid the worst effects of a warming planet.

The continent's largest photovoltaic testing facility opened its doors in San Jose Monday. The development holds the promise of helping solar technologies reach the market faster and accelerating the growth of green collar jobs in the region.