In today’s Bulldog update of Technology news: Duke Energy first in carbon emissions; Is Apple Music unfair to competitors? Firefox offshoot gets $100M to challenge Apple and Google, Amazon Prime Day today.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) ranked number one for carbon emissions in the U.S. in 2013, a new report says. Benchmarking Air Emissions 2015 compares the power production and emissions of pollutants for the 100 largest energy producers in the nation.

Duke was second in 2012 and third in 2011, but purchases of Progress Energy and Cinergy Corp almost tripled Duke Energy’s carbon emissions from 2000 to 2013.

The company should do better this year. It closed older coal burning plants and replaced them with cleaner burning natural gas plants in six states.

In other findings, the report noted that air pollution emissions a small number of producers account for the most emissions.. Among the 100 largest generators:

Five (Duke, AEP, Southern, NRG, and MidAmerican) generate 25 percent of CO2 emissions. Southern, however, has seen a significant decline in emissions (27 percent) since 2000, and Duke has seen a 10 percent decline in its emissions rate even after its recent merger with Progress Energy.

FTC checking Apple Music antitrust claims

While it has not launched a formal investigation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into industry claims that Apple Music, the service just launched to compete with Pandora, Spotify, and similar digital music services, is unfair to its competitors.

Reuters reports that industry sources have complained that the way Apple treats its competitors in its app store is unfair. Apple grabs a 30 percent slice of all in-app digital purchases – a chief way the services make money. That slashes their profit margins or forces their prices higher.

The report says the FTC is also looking at Apple’s forbidding some types of advertising within an app, such as those that let consumers know they can find a service on platforms other than the Apple App Store. It also bans linking to a company web site within the app.

Apple is also being investigated in New York and Connecticut on whether or not it pressured music labels into favoring its new service.

Firefox offshoot to challenge Apple and Google with smartphone OS

CNET reports that Hong Kong-based Acadine Technologies, which is challenging Apple and Google with a new smartphone operating system called H5OS, has raised $100 million in first round venture funding.

The first release from H5OS is expected in six months. The operating system is intended for smartphones, tablets, wearables, and the Internet of Things.

:Li Gong, former Mozilla president and now chair and CEO of Acadine Technologies, said, “Owning an OS is extremely important….it’s very profitable if you can do it.”

Despite the huge funding round, the company may face an uphill battle. Many other firms have challenged Google and Apple with mobile operating systems to little avail. Microsoft just announced it was pulling back from its Windows phone division, and it’s only one of six other attempts by the likes of Samsung and Hewlett-Packard among others. For the full story see: http://www.cnet.com/news/startup-lands-100-million-to-challenge-smartphone-superpowers-apple-and-google/

Amazon Prime Day offers deals

Amazon launches Prime Day today (July 15) with special deals for its Prime customers, who pay $99 a year for the company’s Prime services, which inlcude free two-day delivery, streaming music and video, and now access to special deals.

Amazon says Prime Day is intended to rival Black Friday in speical discounted offers.

We took a quick look at Amazon.com this morning and saw Kindle’s, normally $79 on sale for $49 and its HX7 tablet for $79 when it usually sells for $139.

Many other deals offer steep discounts – many over 50 percent – on a wide range of products from electronics to household cleaning items and clothing.