Clean Start: March 23, 2012

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?

Forecasters say flash flooding is likely in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri as torrential rain inundates the states. [AP]

In 2011, the United States imported just 45 percent of the liquid fuels it used, down from a record high of 60 percent in 2005. [NYT]

Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) on Thursday afternoon all but accused President Obama of lying to Americans about his record on energy production, and called on Obama to “tell the truth” when he speaks about his own energy policies. [The Hill]

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a request that it waive stricter U.S. summer pollution rules for Pennsylvania, where idled refineries may prompt seasonal fuel shortages. [Businessweek]

The oil industry recently laid out a set of proposals to increase its profits, claiming they will instantly lower gasoline prices. [CNN]

U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $481,000 for solar panel installation in Connecticut, to improve financing options for homeowners and small businesses that install the panels, as well as to streamline the permit process and continue to link the systems to the electric grid. [NH Register]

U.S. consumers are on pace to buy about 1.4 million new cars and trucks in March, or about 6% more than in the same month last year. [Detroit Free Press]

President Obama closed his four-state energy tour Thursday in Ohio, a crucial battleground state he carried in 2008, with a speech that cast support for green energy as an economic driver that his political foes are trying to thwart. [The Hill]

If a future oil spill in the Caribbean Sea threatens American shores, a new federal plan obtained by The Associated Press would hinge on cooperation from neighboring foreign governments, which would be difficult with Cuba. [AP]

Environmentalists are accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of dragging its feet on pollution controls for two coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation that serve utilities including Tucson Electric Power Co. [AP]