Lisa Song

Last updated
Lisa Song
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationJournalist
EmployerProPublica
AwardsPulitzer Prize

Lisa Song is an American journalist and author. She won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, with David Hasemyer and Elizabeth McGowan, for their report on the Kalamazoo River oil spill. [1] She works for ProPublica , reporting on the environment, energy and climate change. [2]

Contents

Background and career

Song graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving her Bachelor's in environmental science in 2008, and her Master's in science writing in 2009. [3]

She worked for InsideClimate News, focusing on oil and gas drilling, environmental health, and climate science from January 2011 through February 2017. [4] During her time with InsideClimate, she contributed to the "Dilbit Disaster" Pulitzer prize-winning series in 2013, [1] the "Big Oil" stories, and the Exxon series, which was nominated as a finalist for the Pulitzer prize for public service in 2016. [5] She also won three other awards, including the Edgar A. Poe Award. [5] [6]

Song left InsideClimate in 2017 to report for ProPublica, covering energy, the environment and climate change. [2] She has also worked as a freelance journalist, writing for news magazines and journals, including, HighCountry News , [7] Scientific American, [8] New Scientist [9] and Living on E arth. [10]

Awards and recognition

2013: Dilbit series

During her time with InsideClimate News, she won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with David Hasemyer and Elizabeth McGowan, for their reporting on the Kalamazoo River oil spill. [1]

The 3-part series, and follow up stories, were the result of a 15-month investigation on pipeline safety and Dilbit, a controversial form of oil. In the cover letter for entry to the prize, dilbit, is described as "a thick Canadian hydrocarbon called bitumen that is diluted with liquid chemicals so that it can flow through pipes." [1] The pipeline already had corrosion problems and it was more than a week before the EPA knew that they were dealing with dilbit, because the pipeline operators weren't required to tell first responders in the event of a spill; dilbit is different from normal oil, in that the chemicals evaporate and the thick, different form of oil, sinks to the bottom and is very difficult to clean up. The series and follow-up reporting is listed below.

When the 2013 Pulitzer prize winners were announced, InsideClimate News, was one of the least known of the digital news organizations; Politico's headline described the win in their headline, "For a scrappy environmental-news startup, journalism's most prestigious award." Digital-only prizes had only been awarded since 2009 and very few had won. [21] According to the cover letter, in the entry for the prize, the investigations stemmed from research that Lisa Song had originally began, and McGowan and Hasemyer joined in shortly after. [1]

Song was just 26 years old, when she won the Pulitzer. [21] Additional awards are listed below:

2014: Big oil story

In 2014 Song and her colleagues at InsideClimate, Jim Morris and David Hasemyer, received the Philip Meyer Journalism Award for Social Science for "Big Oil, Bad Air: Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas." [25] They also won the Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy and Environmental Writing, from the National Press Foundation for the same story. [26]

The story exposed how vulnerable, residents are to health risks of the largely unregulated activities around an area known as the Eagle Ford Shale play, a 400-mile-long, 50-mile-wide area of more than 7,000 oil and gas structures, wells, and drilling sites, from Leon County, Texas, in to the Mexican border. [27] Eagle Ford one of the most active drilling sites in America. [28]

Additional awards for the "Big Oil, Bad Air" series and follow up stories are listed below.

2016: Exxon series

In 2016, Song, and her fellow journalists were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. [5] The series of stories were the result of an 8-month investigation into Exxon's climate change stance.

After conducting dozens of interviews and examining company memos from as far back as the 1970s, and hundreds of internal documents, InsideCimate published a series of 9-stories, "Exxon: The Road Not Taken." The publication of the series resulted in the Attorney General of New York, issuing a subpoena to Exxon, in order to look into the possibility of fraud. [5] [34] [35] They were also finalists for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. [36]

They received the following awards for the same series:

"For the past 20 years Exxon has worked to discredit climate science. But, as we learn from InsideClimate News' compelling series, the company had evidence suggesting the opposite was true. From its own scientists. For years."

The ExxonMobil climate change controversy is still ongoing. As of 2020, ExxonMobil still denies any wrongdoing in voicing their opinion on climate policy, claiming that activist organizations are seeking to punish the company, and coordinating an attack campaign on social media, using the hashtag #ExxonKnew. [43]

An ExxonMobil website disputes the reporting, citing several law experts, newsreports, and opinion columns, including New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, The Dallas Morning News, Bloomberg View, USA Today, and Boston Herald. Exxon also has its own timeline of events on their website. [43]

The series of reports by the staff of ClimateChange News, including the documents they used, are listed below.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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The Enbridge Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system which transports crude oil and dilbit from Canada to the United States. The system exceeds 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) in length including multiple paths. More than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) of the system is in the United States while the rest is in Canada and serves the Athabasca oil sands production facilities. Main parts of the system are 2,306-kilometre-long (1,433 mi) Canadian Mainline and 3,057-kilometre-long (1,900 mi) Lakehead System. On average, it delivers 1.4 million barrels per day of crude oil and other products to the major oil refineries in the American Midwest and the Canadian province of Ontario. The Canadian portion is owned by Enbridge, while the U.S. portion is partly owned by that company through Enbridge Energy Partners, LP, formerly known as Lakehead Pipe Line Partners and Lakehead Pipe Line Company.

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Dilbit is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naphtha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines. Per the Alberta Oil Sands Bitumen Valuation Methodology, "Dilbit Blends" means "Blends made from heavy crudes and/or bitumens and a diluent, usually natural-gas condensate, for the purpose of meeting pipeline viscosity and density specifications, where the density of the diluent included in the blend is less than 800 kg/m3." If the diluent density is greater than or equal to 800 kg/m3, the diluent is typically synthetic crude and accordingly the blend is called synbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prudhoe Bay oil spill</span> Alaskan oil spill of 2006

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer of InsideClimate News, Brooklyn, NY". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  2. 1 2 "Lisa Song". ProPublica. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  3. ↑ "Two leading U.S. climate reporters share insights at MIT Communications Forum | Climate". climate.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  4. ↑ "Lisa Song". InsideClimate News. 2015-02-06. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  5. 1 2 3 4 2016 Pulitzer Prizes. "Finalist: InsideClimate News". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  6. 1 2 "Indian-American journalist receives Edgar A Poe award". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  7. ↑ Calvert, Brian; Dec. 7, Sarah Tory; Now, 2015 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate (2015-12-07). "New staff and fellow". www.hcn.org. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  8. ↑ "Stories by Lisa Song". Scientific American. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  9. ↑ Song, Lisa. "The wonder of water". New Scientist. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  10. ↑ International, Living on Earth / World Media Foundation / Public Radio. "Living on Earth: Kalamazoo River Spill Yields Record Fine". Living on Earth. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  11. ↑ "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of, Part 1". InsideClimate News. 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  12. ↑ "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of, Part 2". InsideClimate News. 2012-06-27. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  13. ↑ "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of, Part 3". InsideClimate News. 2012-06-28. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  14. ↑ "Epilogue: Cleanup, Consequences and Lives Changed in the Dilbit Disaster". InsideClimate News. 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  15. ↑ "New Pipeline Safety Regulations Won't Apply to Keystone XL". InsideClimate News. 2012-07-26. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  16. ↑ "Angry Michigan Residents Fight Uneven Battle Against Pipeline Project on Their Land". InsideClimate News. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  17. ↑ "Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology". InsideClimate News. 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  18. ↑ "EPA Worries Dilbit Still a Threat to Kalamazoo River, More Than 2 Years After Spill". InsideClimate News. 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  19. ↑ "Keystone XL Would Not Use Most Advanced Spill Protection Technology". InsideClimate News. 2012-12-20. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  20. ↑ "Little Oversight for Enbridge Pipeline Route that Skirts Lake Michigan". InsideClimate News. 2012-12-27. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  21. 1 2 Pompeo, Joe. "For a scrappy environmental-news startup, journalism's most prestigious award". POLITICO Media. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  22. ↑ Foundation, The Scripps Howard. "Scripps Howard Awards Honor Nation's Best 2012 Journalism". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awards". InsideClimate News. 2013-03-14. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  24. ↑ "Aronson Awards". Aronson Awards. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  25. ↑ "Awards". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  26. ↑ "Lisa Song, David Hasemyer, Jim Morris, Greg Gilderman". National Press Foundation. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  27. ↑ "Big Oil, Bad Air". eagleford.publicintegrity.org. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  28. ↑ "Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale: 6 Graphics". InsideClimate News. 2014-02-16. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  29. ↑ "AHCJ | About-News: 2014 winners named in top health journalism awards". healthjournalism.org. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  30. ↑ "2014 IRE Award winners". IRE. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  31. ↑ "Sigma Delta Chi Awards - Society of Professional Journalists". www.spj.org. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  32. ↑ "Winners: SEJ 14th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment". SEJ. 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  33. ↑ "The Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, Stanford University". knightrisser.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  34. ↑ "New York Supreme Court Orders ExxonMobil To Comply With A.G. Schneiderman'S Subpoena | New York State Attorney General". ag.ny.gov. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  35. ↑ "BUSINESS: Original subpoena finally surfaces in Exxon case". www.eenews.net. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  36. ↑ "ICN's Exxon Series Named Finalist for Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting". InsideClimate News. 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  37. ↑ "Neela Banerjee, John H. Cushman Jr., David Hasemyer and Lisa Song". National Press Foundation. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  38. ↑ "InsideClimate News Wins Stokes Energy Award". National Press Foundation. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  39. ↑ "awards « Search Results « SABEW". sabew.org. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  40. ↑ "Winners: SEJ 15th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment". SEJ. 2016-08-05. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  41. ↑ "ICN's Exxon Series Awarded the Izzy for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Media". InsideClimate News. 2016-02-26. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  42. ↑ "ICN's Exxon Series Honored With Scripps Howard Award for Outstanding Environmental Journalism". InsideClimate News. 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  43. 1 2 "Understanding the #ExxonKnew controversy". ExxonMobil. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  44. ↑ Banerjee, Neela; Song, Lisa; Hasemyer, David (2015-09-16). "Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  45. ↑ Banerjee, Neela; Song, Lisa; Hasemyer, David (2015-09-17). "Exxon Believed Deep Dive Into Climate Research Would Protect Its Business". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  46. ↑ Song, Lisa; Banerjee, Neela; Hasemyer, David (2015-09-22). "Exxon Confirmed Global Warming Consensus in 1982 with In-House Climate Models". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  47. ↑ "Exxon's Business Ambition Collided with Climate Change Under a Distant Sea (Part 4) – Advanced BioFuels USA" . Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  48. ↑ Cushman, John H. Jr. (2015-10-08). "Highlighting the Allure of Synfuels, Exxon Played Down the Climate Risks". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  49. ↑ Hasemyer, David; Cushman, John H. Jr. (2015-10-22). "Exxon Sowed Doubt About Climate Science for Decades by Stressing Uncertainty". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  50. ↑ "Exxon Made Deep Cuts in Climate Research Budget in the 1980s". InsideClimate News. 2015-11-25. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  51. ↑ "More Exxon Documents Show How Much It Knew About Climate 35 Years Ago". InsideClimate News. 2015-12-01. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  52. ↑ "Exxon's Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers in the 1970s, Too". InsideClimate News. 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  53. ↑ "Documents". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  54. ↑ "Big Oil + Bad Air". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  55. ↑ Banerjee, Neela; Cushman (Jr.), John H.; Hasemyer, David; Song, Lisa (2015). Exxon: The Road Not Taken. InsideClimate News. ISBN   978-1-5187-1867-0.
  56. ↑ Song, Lisa; McGowan, Elizabeth; Hasemyer, David (2016-10-19). The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill Youve Never Heard of. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-5390-0959-7.
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