Microsoft Corp Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie — the guy in charge of the company’s $9 billion research budget and deep thinking — sat down with Reuters to talk about clean energy — carbon free, not necessarily renewable, in his view. Following are a couple of excerpts.

No more Mr. Nice Green! San Francisco passed what it called the first mandatory requirement to throw carrot peels, moldy bread and other icky compostable material into separate bins in order to improve recycling. Total recycling would rise to 90 percent from a current 72 percent if all of the paper and scraps currently in the garbage [...]

California’s environmental and other regulations are helping to send manufacturers running, but the state can capitalize on its green image (and should streamline regulations) a new study by the Milken Institute says.
The study found that Golden State manufacturing was already contracting at an astounding rate even before the latest meltdown, and that it was lagging some [...]

Yikes. Seems it’s ain’t easy, or at least ain’t cheap, being green.

Google Green Energy Czar (real title) Bill Weihl sat down with Reuters to talk about Renewable Energy Less Than Coal – the company’s plan to make affordable clean energy.

The feds are taking on California’s plan to limit tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases and discussing the idea of low carbon fuel, but California has one other major idea to curb vehicle pollution, says the state senator who pushed through the tailpipe emissions law, Fran Pavley.

Water scarcity is a growing risk for businesses and investors and companies should offer more transparency regarding their exposure to water shortages and other climate change concerns, according to investor group Ceres.

The results are in and no surprise — California’s lean snowpack means a third year of drought for the state whose farms supply about half the nation’s fruit and vegetables.

The U.S. is out to create a clean-air zone around its coastlines, targeting diesel ships that look pretty dirty from shore.

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens is spending $2 billion on a bunch of windmills and so far has no way to get the electricity to market. Last December he said he was a touch anxious, but on Wednesday he didn’t seem worried at all.

Home electric bills could rise 30 percent under a U.S. cap-and-trade plan to address carbon dioxide emissions, Moody’s estimates.

Google co-founder Larry Page is building green. He’s planning a cozy 6,000 square foot eco-mansion on a lot in Palo Alto.

California’s green jobs program is off to the races with $20 million in state and fed funds for a 20-month program for some 1,000 ‘at risk’ young adults.

To help prepare myself for the water series we’ve been running, I went to the movies. Or brought home a DVD, anyway. I rented “Chinatown,” the fictional 1974 Roman Polanski movie with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, which is all about the growth of Los Angeles and the search/theft for water.
 Considering that the current Las Vegas [...]

Last year’s horrendous China earthquake may have big, lingering effects on the atmosphere. Mudslides after the deadly May 12 quake in Sichuan province are likely t trigger carbon dioxide release equal to 2 percent of current carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion, geophysicists say.