Pulitzer Prize to Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer of InsideClimate News for reporting on flawed regulation of U.S. oil pipelines and dangers of tar sands crude (dilbit)

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners

National Reporting

For a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs, using any available journalistic tool, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer of InsideClimate News, Brooklyn, N.Y., for their rigorous reports on flawed regulation of the nation’s oil pipelines, focusing on potential ecological dangers posed by diluted bitumen (or "dilbit"), a controversial form of oil.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Liz Kowalczyk, Carolyn Johnson, Todd Wallack, Patricia Wen and Kay Lazar of The Boston Globe for their aggressive coverage of the deadly national outbreak of fungal meningitis traced to a compounding pharmacy in suburban Boston, revealing how the medical regulatory system failed to safeguard patients; and Craig Whitlock, Greg Miller, Karen DeYoung and Julie Tate of The Washington Post, for their fresh exploration of how American drones moved from a temporary means to kill terrorists to a permanent weapon of war, raising issues of legality and accountability.

Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer -all links are to pdfs- June 26, 2012 The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of, Part 1 June 27, 2012 The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of, Part 2 June 28, 2012 The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of, Part 3 June 29, 2012 Epilogue: Cleanup, Consequences and Lives Changed in the Dilbit Disaster October 11, 2012 EPA Worries Dilbit Still a Threat to Kalamazoo River, More Than 2 Years After Spill September 12, 2012 Angry Michigan Residents Fight Uneven Battle Against Pipeline Project on Their Land September 19, 2012 Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology December 20, 2012 Keystone XL Would Not Use Most Advanced Spill Protection Technology December 27, 2012 Little Oversight for Enbridge Pipeline Route that Skirts Lake Michigan July 26, 2012 New Pipeline Safety Regulations Won’t Apply to Keystone XL

Copyright: 

 2012, InsideClimate News

Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer

Lisa Song has degrees in environmental science and science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined InsideClimate News in January 2011 and reports on water, pipelines and science-related topics. Before that she worked as a freelancer—her articles, podcasts and videos have appeared in High Country News, Scientific American, New Scientist and Living on Earth.

Elizabeth McGowan recently left InsideClimate News to write a book. A graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, she has worked for daily newspapers in Vermont and Wisconsin. Over the years she has written for a variety of publications including Nature Conservancy Magazine, E/The Environmental Magazine; Washingtonian magazine; Outdoor America; the journal Appalachia; Crain Communications' Waste and Recycling News. She is an avid hiker and bicyclist who has ridden solo across the United States.

David Hasemyer is regular freelancer for InsideClimate News. Previously he was an investigative reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune, where his work was recognized by the Associated Press, the Society for Professional Journalists, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has also been a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award. At the Union-Tribune Hasemyer wrote a series about a 10-million ton pile of nuclear waste that threatened the Colorado River. Those stories have been credited as critical to the U. S. Department of Energy's decision in 2000 to move the uranium tailings pile away from the river. Hasemyer graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism.