Clean Start: August 5, 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?

The most toxic compounds in the estimated 50,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the Yellowstone River evaporated quickly after the pipeline break last month, leaving gobs of sticky crude that pose no threat to human health, federal officials claimed Thursday. [AP]

Southern Co. (SO), the biggest U.S. utility owner by market value, said proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules are “misguided” and will cost the company as much as $18 billion. [Bloomberg]

The Texas power grid operator ERCOT has scrambled this week to meet soaring electricity demand in the face of a brutal heat wave, and residents of the second most populous U.S. state are one power plant shut-down away from rolling blackouts. [Reuters]

DuPont said it plans to stop selling and recall its widely used Imprelis herbicide after customers and several lawsuits complained that the treatment has killed thousands of trees. [Reuters]

A U.S. official says the famine in Somalia has killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5. [CBS News]

Lauren Morello takes a look at Summit Station, the scientific research station on the highest point of Greenland’s ice sheet. [Climatewire]

Flood waters from a river in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan forced thousands to evacuate Friday, while residents in nearby Hunan province face severe shortages of water for drinking and crops, Chinese state media said. [Reuters]

In Britain, the traditional signs of spring were on average 17 days earlier because of the record hot weather in April. [Telegraph]

Drought worsened in the Midwest during the last week as record-high temperatures stressed the developing corn and soybean crops, while cotton and pastures eroded amid a historic drought in the southern Plains. [Reuters]

“If you don’t like what scientists say, then get in there and criticise the scientists,” Australia prime minister Julia Gillard mocked the opposition‘s threat to slash the Climate Change Department staff if they take over. [Australian]

Creating crops with deeper roots could soak up much more carbon dioxide from the air, help mankind fight global warming and lead to more drought-tolerant varieties, a British scientist says in a study. [Reuters]