Clean Start: October 7, 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 UK’s flagship carbon capture and storage project at Scottish Power’s Longannet coal-fired plant is understood to be close to financial collapse as the global economic slowdown limits the incentives for low-emissions electricity. [Utility Week]

Firefighters on Wednesday battled a wind-swept wildfire that has burned more than 40 square miles in central Nebraska, destroying one home and sending one man to the hospital with burns. [AP]

The EU remains on track to exceed the international carbon emissions targets imposed through the Kyoto Protocol, despite a 2.4 per cent increase in emissions last year driven by the bloc’s gradual economic recovery. [Business Green]

The Asian monsoon season has caused $7 billion in damages, killing 101 people in China, 206 in Thailand, 443 in Pakistan, and 97 in India while damaging hundreds of thousands of homes. [Insurance Journal]

The stubborn wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge has burned for more than two months, even after a hurricane and tropical storm dumped about four months’ worth of rain within weeks. [Washington Post]

The global warming-fueled heat wave that pushed Texas’ power grid to the brink of blackouts has faded, but the debate over how to keep the lights on next summer is just warming up. [Reuters]

As flooding continued in Cambodia on Thursday, killing 176 people and displacing 21,000, a group of high-ranking officials said they blamed regional climate change and urged Cambodia to find a response. [VOA News]

An impasse in global climate talks is casting a shadow on clean energy financing in the developing world, with growing doubts over a program that has funded billions of dollars in projects. [AFP]

As an export pipeline, Keystone XL will have no impact on U.S. dependence on Mideast and Venezuelan oil. [Price of Oil]

Rising world temperatures will cause most populations of herbivores – including plant-eating fish – to decline, according to a University of British Columbia biologist. [UBC]

Within 30 years, the areas where California can grow fine-wine grapes could shrink because of climate change, while little-known growing regions such as Seattle’s Puget Sound and Oregon’s Willamette Valley see growth, although increasingly extreme weather will affect all regions. [USA Today]