Clean Start: July 28, 2011

Welcome to Clean Start, ThinkProgress Green’s morning round-up of the latest in climate and clean energy. Here is what we’re reading. What are you?

Tropical Storm Don, forming in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to head toward Texas, disrupting oil production but bringing some relief from the killer drought. [ThirdAge]

The Obama administration and major auto manufacturers have reached a deal to raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks between 2017 and 2025 to 54.5 MPG, resolving a contentious negotiation over how to cut vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions. [Washington Post]

American Petroleum Institute officials are slated to meet Thursday morning with White House staff to take issue with the Environmental Protection Agency’s cost-benefit analysis of its pending ozone rules. [E2]

Thunderstorms packing heavy rains left some roadways under water, prompted flash flood warnings across much of southern Michigan and knocked out power to more than 21,000 homes and businesses. [AP]

“Although private industry may assert they are adequately prepared for a response to a spill, we must determine what response capability our Coast Guard and nation needs to have so we can mount an adequate response as exploration advances towards production” of oil in the Arctic Ocean, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Robert Papp testified before Congress. [UPI]

The massive heat wave that baked half the country in triple digit heat indexes last week have caused as many as 64 deaths in 15 states. [Examiner]

A new statewide survey of environment issues conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found more residents favor climate change policy, want to cut greenhouse gas emissions and believe they are already experiencing the effects of global warming. [LA Times]

British farmers are experimenting with crops such as olives and nectarines which have traditionally been imported from southern Europe while the first British tea plantation has opened with a changing climate set to transform the nation’s countryside. [Reuters]

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) floated legislation Wednesday that would formally integrate consideration of climate change into U.S. foreign policy on sustainable development and poverty reduction. [E2]