Clean Start: October 18, 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?

Winds gusting at more than 70 mph churned up a 8,000-foot-high dust storm that roiled through the Texas South Plains during the Monday afternoon commute. [AP]

Historic drought conditions are fueling the largest algae bloom in more than a decade along the Texas Gulf Coast, killing fish, sparking warnings about beach conditions and making throats scratchy, researchers said Monday. [AP]

Tuvalu is almost out of clean water because of sea level rise and severe drought. [Time]

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a pipeline safety bill on Monday that would require strength-testing of old pipes and hike fines for safety violations after a series of accidents and explosions. [Reuters]

Thailand‘s budget deficit would be far higher than planned because of the worst flooding in 50 years, the government said on Tuesday, and people in Bangkok were told not to drop their guard even if the immediate danger to the capital had passed. [Reuters]

The EPA is trying to put “an end to the myth that the Agency is planning to tighten” the regulations for industrial farm dust that have been in place since 1987. [Mother Jones]

There is much the Western world can learn from indigenous people to address some of the problems of global warming, and to more effectively deal with the impending changes. [National Geographic]

Enacting carbon pricing mechanisms at the point of extraction could be efficient and avoid the relocation of industries that could result from regulation at the point of combustion. [Science Daily]

Molecular Solar Ltd, a spinout company from the University of Warwick, reports it has achieved a significant breakthrough in the performance of organic solar photovoltaic cells. [Science Daily]

Texas public high school football players will likely have far fewer two-a-day practices starting in 2012 under rules approved Monday that would give the state some of the strongest guidelines in the country to protect athletes from heat-related injuries. [AP]