2 Greenpeace members arrested at Apple HQ after protest featuring iPhone costumes

A protest at Apple headquarters over the tech giant's energy practices featured full-sized iPhone costumes and ended Tuesday morning with the arrests of two people who locked themselves inside a small dome, authorities said.

To make the arrests, authorities cut their way into the igloo-like structure protesters dubbed as their own "iPod."

The protest began around 8 a.m. in front of the company's Cupertino campus, which Greenpeace members said was staged to highlight what they call Apple's slowness in abandoning coal-powered energy for its ever-expanding roster of server farms.

"We're asking Apple to clean up its cloud and use clean energy to power its data centers," said Greenpeace spokesman David Pomerantz.

Pomerantz cited Facebook and Google as tech peers who have been more swift in decreasing their reliance on coal power in favor of greener sources like wind and solar energy.

Apple officials said they were puzzled by the demonstration. Spokeswoman Kristin Huguet saying an Apple data center in North Carolina -- called out by a Greenpeace social-media campaign as being on a "dirty" energy grid -- is on pace to draw 60 percent of its power from a solar farm and fuel cells, with a pending facility in Oregon set to be powered by 100 percent renewable sources.

Pomerantz acknowledged that the North Carolina effort was a good step, but was skeptical of the company's figures, saying those could shrink as the facilities

expand and grow more energy-hungry.

Back in Cupertino, Apple employees were mostly bemused by the walking, talking iPhones flanking them as they came to work. They were probably confused by the igloo-type structure described by Greenpeace as "an eight-foot tall, ten-foot wide survival device previously used in protests to prevent Arctic drilling."

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office got involved when two women ages 21 and 22 barricaded themselves inside the pod.

Sgt. Jose Cardoza said deputies summoned the help of firefighters to saw through a door. The two women were arrested on suspicion of trespassing -- the dome was on a company-owned lot -- and resisting arrest.

Cardoza said while searching the pod they found four large vehicle or machine batteries and are exploring whether they constitute a violation of hazardous materials ordinances.

Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.

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