Clean Start: October 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?

Still reeling from last month’s devastating fire, residents in Bastrop County were once again forced to evacuate because of a 1,000-acre wildfire that firefighters were battling Tuesday night. [Austin American-Statesman]

Last month, Nova Scotia upped its support for clean energy when it unveiled the highest tariff in North America to encourage developers of small wind energy projects as well as the highest in the world for small power plants driven by ocean tides. [Reuters]

Flooding in central and northern Thailand blamed on unusually heavy monsoon rains and poor management of the country’s large dams has left at least 237 people dead. [Herald Sun]

A federal judge has approved a far-reaching settlement giving Montana until 2014 to clean up polluted streams and lakes in 28 watersheds across the state, capping nearly 15 years of legal battles, officials said on Monday. [Reuters]

Officials say nearly $350 million in federal and state disaster assistance has now been obligated to North Dakotans for this spring’s flooding. [AP]

With winter coming quickly in North Dakota, federal officials are racing to finish up to 2,400 temporary homes for Minot residents displaced by the worst flooding in the city’s history. [AP]

Last month the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. [Science Daily]

The Obama administration wants to speed up permitting and construction of seven proposed electric transmission lines in 12 states, as it moves to create jobs and modernize the nation’s power grid. [AP]

A study by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation shows agriculture-related losses from the Missouri River flooding at $207 million. [Radio Iowa]

Constructing buildings, power-plants and roads has driven a substantial increase in China’s carbon dioxide emission growth, according to a new study involving the University of East Anglia (UEA). [Science Daily]

The planet is “very, very far away” from meeting the 2-degree goal, said Bill Hare, a lead writer of the major 2007 UN scientific report on climate change and director at Potsdam-based research group Climate Analytics. [AFP]

Already, drought, hunger and disease connected to rising temperatures jeopardize “our common future,” U.N. special envoy on climate change Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland told a large audience at the University of Illinois at Chicago. [Medill]

A $500 million green jobs training program at the Department of Labor has so far provided only 15 percent of current participants with jobs, leading the agency’s inspector general to recommend that the bulk of the money be returned to the Treasury. [Greenwire]

A task force appointed by President Barack Obama says coastal states must work together to restore elements of the Gulf of Mexico that have made it a backbone of the U.S. economy before the ecosystem becomes so degraded and polluted it is no longer habitable for animals or people. [Washington Post]

Nearly 18 months after a disastrous oil spill killed wildlife and endangered the futures of fishermen and resort businesses along the Gulf of Mexico, the federal government announces it will regulate not only the operators of offshore oil rigs, but the contractors who own and work on them, as well. [NPR]

Lack of information due to “insufficient or inadequate environmental monitoring systems” mean the federal environmental and water agencies cannot build a clear picture of how regional ecosystems have been affected by tar sands projects, Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development said in a report to parliament. [AFP]