Green news harvest: Obama's energy plan, plug-in hybrid changes how you drive

A sampling of green-tech news and quick commentary.
• Plug-In Power: My six days with a Plug-In Prius--Clean Break
  The key insight: plug-ins with real-time feedback make you think about how you drive, nudging you to more efficiency.

A Hymotion battery retrofitted into a Prius.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com)
• V2Green charges up with angel funds--Earth2Tech
  "Smart charging," where you schedule when to charge your car so as not to stress the grid, is important to accommodating plug-in hybrids.
• Mazda, Hiroshima Univ aim to develop non-food bioplastic--Tech-On
  Bioplastic for your car's dash. Via Good Clean Tech
• Street downgrades clobber ethanol makers, corn refiners--MarketWatch
  The floods in the Midwest mean poor prospects for this year's corn harvest and ethanol makers. Via Biofuels Digest
• Honda says fuel-cell cars face hurdles--WSJ.com
  A reality check from Honda Motors president on its latest fuel cell car. Don't expect to see a lot of them nearby anytime soon.
• Obama plans spending boost, possible cut in business tax--WSJ.com
  Half-way down: "The heart of Sen. Obama's spending program is his plan to spend $15 billion a year for 10 years on energy technology."
• Flooding, monitoring, warming, building--Dot Earth, New York Times blog
  Andrew Revkin connects the dots between monitoring streams to collect data, floods like those in Iowa, and climate change.
• Cleantech down and dirty (part one)--Xconomy
  A good column on why many venture capital-backed clean-tech companies are headed for trouble.