Rethinking basic assumptions about global warming; California gets its first hybrid power plants; and LS9 announces genetically engineered bacteria which produce designer fuels.

Has Global Warming Research Misinterpreted Cloud Behavior?: Climatologists are taking a second look at their assumptions regarding the way clouds respond to greenhouse warming. When forecasting climate change, scientists have generally taken it for granted that small temperature fluctuations affect cloud behavior, not the other way around. Now a paper set for publication in the Journal of Climate challenges this understanding. Dr. Roy W. Spencer, of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, believes that falsely associating certain observed cloud changes with temperature may explain why climate models predict warmer conditions that seem to be actually occurring. While the paper was not written to address whether global warming is man made, it may provide an alternative explanation to climatological change. (Science Daily)

Greener Solar Plants Turn to Biofuels By Night: Here’s a new kind of hybrid for you: a hybrid power plant. San Francisco’s innovative PG&E has contracted another California company, San Joaquin Solar, to add biomass production capability to at least three solar thermal projects. At night, or on cloudy days, the plants would switch their turbines over to produce electricity from garbage. The 106.8 megawatt contract could be online by 2011. (Earth2Tech)

Heavy Problem: Dirtier Oil, Though Cheaper, Sparks Green Backlash: When you hear $130 a barrel oil prices batted around, they’re referring to light, sweet crude. There are other grades of oil for sale — and they’re much cheaper. They’re also loaded with sulfur, making them dirtier and less energy efficient to refine. Iran and Kuwait slashed prices this week on their largely unsalable sour crude. But environmental groups are raising objections. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently denied plans for a Roxana, Illinois, sour crude facility, and similar programs face sharp opposition in California and Indiana. (WSJ.com)

Green Building Aspects of Toyota’s Plug-in Hybrid News: How are plug-in cars and green building techniques related? An electric fleet of automobiles needs a place to plug-in, and smart green builder can supply renewable alternatives to just jacking cars into the power grid. Jetson Green examines whether green buildings could be the gas stations of the future. Some of the possibilities: “solar groves” which allow shoppers to charge their cars — for a small free, and plug-in outlets which refuel your car while you work at the office. (Jetson Green)

LS9’s Designer Biofuel, Renewable Petroleum: The biofuel industry is experiencing a burst of creative discoveries, largely funded by large-scale infusions of venture capital. The latest is from California-based LS9, which says it has created a replacement for petroleum based on genetically engineered bacteria. The designer microbe is fed a soup of renewable feedstocks. These are digested into high-energy fuels which LS9 says will can be tailored as drop-in replacements for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. (CleanTechnica)

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