Clean Start: October 19, 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?

If its bid to acquire El Paso Energy is approved, Kinder Morgan would become the “Exxon of pipeline companies.” [Grist]

Global climate talks in South Africa next month will not produce a “big bang” capable of producing a new and binding pact to slash greenhouse gases, but steady progress could be made, a senior European climate official said on Tuesday. [Reuters]

Conservatives want to end support for America’s fastest growing industry — solar. [Grist]

TransCanada Corp has offered a $100 million performance bond and other oil spill protection measures to Nebraska legislators in an attempt to reduce opposition to the company’s proposed $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline. [Reuters]

The United Nations says ongoing floods in Southeast Asia are triggering a humanitarian crisis, as floods and disasters in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines have killed more than 700 people and affected eight million others. [VOA News]

Florida’s hurricane fund is confronting a potential $3.2 billion shortfall, financial experts said Tuesday in a new estimate of the money available to the pool intended to help insurers make disaster payments. [AP]

After one of the hottest summers on record, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is lighting a fire under legislative committees to do more when it comes to Texas’ preparedness during periods of extreme drought, though ignoring global warming. [Houston Chronicle]

The ongoing drought conditions in Texas have spread to Louisiana and southern Arkansas, choking several industries along the Ouachita River. [Arkansas Business]