Eric Westerling

Welcome to The Compost, a weekly newsletter on key environmental news impacting Southern California. Subscribe now to get it in your inbox! In today’s edition… The broader debate over whether power lines should be moved underground is pitting homeowners against business groups, neighboring cities against one another and city leaders against the local utility company in western Riverside County. Southern […]

The United Nations chief said “humanity has opened the gates to hell” in a speech Wednesday that warned that the global effort to cut planet-heating emissions is still “dwarfed by the scale of the challenge.” It’s the latest attempt by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to capture in a soundbite the horrors unfolding in what is […]

HONOLULU (AP) — From just outside the burn zone in Lahaina, Jes Claydon can see the ruins of the rental home where she lived for 13 years and raised three children. Little remains recognizable beyond the jars of sea glass that stood outside the front door. On Monday, officials will begin lifting restrictions on entry […]

When we talk about climate change, the risk of too much snow isn’t typically part of the conversation. But we’re constantly learning more about how our warming planet is contributing to all sorts of extreme weather events, from devastating flooding in Libya to wildfires in Canada. And when such disasters strike, local agencies might have days, hours […]

The first topic of discussion in Wednesday night’s Republican presidential primary debate was the United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three auto manufacturers. The first candidate to address the underlying issues directly was former Vice President Mike Pence, who said the workers’ real enemy wasn’t the companies but President Joe Biden — because, allegedly, […]

The looming government shutdown threatens to severely limit public access to America’s national parks and deliver a crushing economic blow to communities that rely on park tourism. On a call with reporters late Thursday, Biden administration officials detailed plans to shutter the majority of national park sites around the country in an effort to prevent […]

The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a long-awaited drilling plan that would drastically shrink the nation’s offshore oil and gas leasing program to a maximum of three lease sales over the next five years — the smallest number ever to be offered in the program’s history. The Interior Department said the proposal is “in line” […]

Welcome to The Compost, a weekly newsletter on key environmental news impacting Southern California. Subscribe now to get it in your inbox! In today’s edition… Would you live in a hexagon-shaped home if it was climate-friendly? What about a dome? Those are some of the designs chosen by student homebuilders from across Southern California and beyond who are competing […]

Oil prices are rising again as Israel prepares to invade Gaza as soon as Saturday and the United States tightens sanctions on major crude-producing countries, sparking market fears over a drop in supply as demand increases. On Friday morning, the price per barrel of West-Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for contracts to deliver oil produced in […]

We all know how that turned out. For an article that ran across our news group’s front pages Monday, I looked back at the surprise “miracle” water year that refilled reservoirs, lakes and rivers across the state. Groundwater basins haven’t bounced back quite as quickly, though most in Southern California are still in solid shape thanks to […]