The Drain

Our National Parks are Open — and Openly Threatened

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

“I’m still here working.” That’s what a park ranger at Yosemite National Park told me last Friday, as he made his rounds. Anyone who thinks they can flagrantly break the park rules during the government shutdown is in for “a rude awakening,” he said. Literally. He and other rangers have been using noise to wake …

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Arson Alone Does Not Explain the Palisades Fire

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

When federal prosecutors charged a man last week with intentionally starting a brushfire that was suppressed but smoldered and ultimately became the Palisades fire, arson became the focus of attention all week. The city’s after-action report about the fire was totally overshadowed by questions around the suspect. What was his motive? Is there strong evidence? …

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Some Good News About the El Segundo Chevron Explosion

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

When the state’s second-largest refinery emitted a fireball into the heavens last week, it was bad. But it wasn’t all bad. The “incident” at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo was a good reminder that air pollution is present during the entire life cycle of oil and gas products, from when it comes out of …

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At a Loss for Words? Resist Climate Silence

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

A few years ago, I was writing about how President Joe Biden was flying around the country to promote his landmark climate law without uttering the word “climate.” Seems so quaint. Now, we find ourselves in a place where “climate change” is on a list of banned words maintained by the U.S. Energy Department, along …

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New York Climate Weak

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

Now is the time for courage. Now is not the time to pull punches or pull speakers. We need more speech — not enforced silence. That’s why I’m not a big fan of shutting down campus speakers, even those who might spread climate obstruction. Like Vicki Hollub, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, who was being …

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California Takes a Stab at Climate and Energy Costs

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

It’s remarkable that with everything else that’s raging, climate and energy bills still managed to dominate the legislative session that just wrapped in Sacramento. After all, the reason lawmakers were still at work this past Saturday — the day after the legislative session was supposed to end — was that negotiations on climate bills pushed …

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Young Climate Plaintiffs Won Big in Montana. Can They Again?

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

One of the biggest climate victories to date belongs to 19-year-old Eva Lighthiser and the other Montana youth climate plaintiffs who won their landmark case against state officials and saw it upheld in the state Supreme Court. Now, some of those same young people — Lighthiser included — are headed back to court next week …

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Trump’s War on Wind is Dumb. It also Makes Sense.

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

The Trump administration’s attack on wind energy feels dumber and dumber every day. Let’s see if we can make it make some sense. After that, the major headlines of the week. Last Friday, his Transportation Department withdrew $679 million for offshore wind projects at 12 ports. Last month, the administration sent a stop-work order to …

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How to Dissent? Learn American History

LA Public Library

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

It sounds cliché, but when you face a crisis, it helps to remember times that you’ve overcome adversity. That’s the power of history. And it’s one of the reasons I think the new PBS documentary “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog” is crucial to share right now. In the 1940s, dark, smoky clouds crept …

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Why Does Misinformation Follow Extreme Weather?

The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

Nowadays when an extreme weather event strikes in America, what follows is a secondary emergency in the form of misinformation on social media. We’ve seen it play out after floods and heat waves, but this phenomenon really goes into overdrive after hurricanes and wildfires. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate looked …

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