As National Youth Science Day kicks into action, today, Orange County’s largest 4-H club is preparing to explore the world of biofuels.
You know biofuels — substitutes for gasoline manufactured from plants: used cooking oil, corn and, in many new programs, algae is being featured as a source.
The region’s smog control agency will spend $90 million — half of that federal stimulus dollars — to fast-track development of hybrid trucks and buses for Southern California fleets, including at least one in Orange County. 
The hybrids will be developed over the next two years under the guidance of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar.
The trucks will be plug-in gasoline-electric hybrids, and will include utility and delivery trucks as well as shuttle buses. Building them could also spur larger economic effects.
“If these become commercialized, now there are opportunities for utilities to start putting in more infrastructure,” said Matt Miyasato, assistant deputy executive officer at the air district. “They have to plug in somewhere. There’s a potential for more jobs in that arena.”
A Brea limousine maker hard-hit by the recession says a Las Vegas ”green” initiative is bringing much-needed work to his company at a critical time. 
Krystal Enterprises is building 26 compressed natural gas limos that will be put into service in a new, $8.4 billion resort and casino complex planned for the desert city. A second O.C. company, Clean Energy of Seal Beach, will build a new CNG refueling station in the complex, adding to several around the city the firm has already built.
“It’s definitely keeping us moving right now at a very difficult time,” said John D. Beck, Krystal’s executive vice president, as he walked through his company’s assembly area this week. “This order is a huge help to us. I think it’s definitely part of our future.”
Next time a FedEx delivery truck rolls by, check its side panel for a green logo. It might be one of 28 hybrid-electric trucks now being rolled out by the global delivery service in Orange County. 
The company is sending 92 of the trucks to California as part of a worldwide push to increase its fleet of cleaner-burning vehicles, said Mitch Jackson, director of environmental affairs and sustainability.
“We’re not only trying to make our operations more efficient, we’re trying to find ways to transform transportation,” Jackson said. “We feel electrification of a significant portion of surface transportation is the way to go.”
New cars sold in California must include windshields that block or absorb the sun’s rays beginning in 2012, the state Air Resources Board ruled this week. 
The new regulation is meant to keep cars cooler, cutting the need for air conditioning, saving energy and reducing emissions that contribute to global warming, the agency says.
To meet the new rules, car windows will have to block 33 percent more of the sun’s heat-producing rays than cars windows do today. Because the rays being blocked are in the infrared part of the spectrum, the windows would not require tinting, and will look no different from present-day car windows, said air board spokesman Stanley Young.
The hydrogen refueling station at UC Irvine can sometimes look a little lonely, but Tuesday it looked like a typical, bustling gas station as a caravan of hydrogen cars passed through on their way to Vancouver.
About a dozen cars from seven carmakers lined up at the pump, their first stop since the trek began that morning in Chula Vista in San Diego County.
“The point is to show that the technology is here,” said Tim Brown of UCI’s National Fuel Cell Research Center. “It’s not a science experiment anymore.”
The Hydrogen Road Tour 2009 is expected to take nine days to reach Vancouver, British Columbia; the participants hope to draw plenty of attention, and to push forward the notion of a “hydrogen future.”
From your favorite restaurants and shops to the best day spa in town, here are your choices for the number one places to eat, shop and play in O.C.
