* North Carolina's air quality this summer was the best it's been in more than three decades — the combined result of environmental laws, balmy weather and the recession.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Monday that the state had just six "code orange" days in which ground-level ozone levels exceeded federal clean air standards. That's the lowest number since some local governments began tracking air quality in the state in the early 1970s. In the summer of 2008, the state had 36 days of unhealthy ozone levels, and 66 the year before that.

The primary reason for the decline in ozone levels is lower emissions from coal-fired power plants and automobiles, according to DENR. The state's Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002 required the state's 14 coal-burning plants to cut ozone-forming emissions by three-fourths by 2012. Coal is used to generate more than half the state's electricity. (N&O)

* U.S. Rep, Howard Coble has some problems with a plan to open up a host of new Internet domain names.

Coble, a Greensboro Republican, co-wrote a letter to the nonprofit organization that oversees internate domains such as .com or .org.

Coble’s interest extends in large part from his work on intellectual property rights.

Among the concerns, companies with recognizable brand names worry they’ll have to rush into a new cyberspace land grab to avoid others from squatting on their trademarks. Home Depot, for example, may find itself not only needing to hold onto homedepot.com but names like home.depot. (GN-R)

Michael Shore is leaving Environmental Defense.

The Asheville resident, who helped write the landmark state Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002, is leaving the nonprofit advocacy group to join a startup that provides solar energy.

FLS Energy, which stands for Forward-Looking Sustainable Energy, designs and installs systems that heat water using solar energy. The rooftop systems circulate water that is heated by the sun, providing up to 70 or 80 percent of a family's or business' hot water needs.

The typical family system would cost several thousand dollars, but Shore said the cost can quickly be recouped through lower energy bills.

"They could reduce their energy consumption, reduce their pollution and reduce their power bills as well," he said.

Shore, 42, worked on climate change, air quality and energy issues for seven years, but his most notable achievement was the smokestacks bill, which required Duke Energy and Progress Energy to reduce soot and smog-forming pollution 70 percent by 2012.