On our blogs: Green airplanes, Prius award, electric car charging

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GREEN FLIGHT PLAN: If you’re flying to LAX, chances are your plane ride is not only safer but more environmentally conscious as well. A new report stated that up to half of the planes using the landing strips in the nation’s fourth-largest airport use technology that saves fuel and reduces noise and air pollution. The procedure, known as continuous descent, not only helps local neighborhoods battle pollution, it makes plane landings safer. Currently, the FAA estimates that planes using this approach save at least a million gallons of fuel annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 18 million pounds a year.

PRIUS TAKES THE PRIZE: The Toyota Prius has won the honor of Consumer Reports’ pick for Best Green Car of 2009. According to the Consumer Reports website, this is the sixth straight year that the Prius has taken home the award. Toyota has promised a redesigned and even more efficient model to be released this summer.

PLUGGING INTO DEMAND: More car manufacturers are looking into electric and plug-in hybrid cars, but there is still one problem: the lack of charging stations. One group, Project Get Ready, is poised to take charge of the situation. The organization is asking at least 20 cities to promote charge stations. That would theoretically spur automakers to sell their electric cars in those cities. So far Portland, Ore., Indianapolis and Raleigh, N.C. have joined. No word on Los Angeles.

-- Michelle Castillo