Lisa Song

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. She works for ProPublica, reporting on the environment, energy and climate change.

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.

She worked for Inside Climate News, focusing on oil and gas drilling, environmental health, and climate science from January 2011 through February 2017. During her time with Inside Climate, she contributed to the "Dilbit Disaster" Pulitzer prize-winning series in 2013, She also won three other awards, including the Edgar A. Poe Award.

Song left Inside Climate in 2017 to report for ProPublica, covering energy, the environment and climate change. Scientific American, New Scientist and Living on Earth. 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. "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 2," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 27, 2012. "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 3," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 28, 2012. "Epilogue: Cleanup, Consequences and Lives Changed in the Dilbit Disaster," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 29, 2012. "New Pipeline Safety Regulations Won't Apply to Keystone XL," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, July 26, 2012. "Angry Michigan Residents Fight Uneven Battle Against Pipeline Project on Their Land," David Hasemeyer, InsideClimate News, September 12, 2012. "Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology," Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, September 19, 2012. "EPA Worries Dilbit Still a Threat to Kalamazoo River, More than 2 Years After Spill," David Hasemeyer, InsideClimate News, October 11, 2012. "Keystone XL Would Not Use Most Advanced Spill Protection Technology," Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, December 20, 2012. "Little Oversight for Enbridge Pipeline Route that Skirts Lake Michigan," Lisa Song and David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, December 27, 2012.

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. 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. 2012 Honorable Mention, John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, (with Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of." 2013 Winner James Aronson Award for Social Justice Reporting, (with Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," InsideClimate News. 2013 Deadline Club, NYC Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for Reporting by Independent Digital Media (with Elizabeth McGowan) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," InsideClimate News. They also won the Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy and Environmental Writing, from the National Press Foundation for the same story.

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. Eagle Ford one of the most active drilling sites in America.

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

2014 Editor & Publisher EPPY Award for Best Investigative/Feature on a Website, (with David Hasemyer) 2015 Finalist Investigative Reporters & Editors Award for Large Multimedia (with David Hasemyer, Susan White, Zahra Hirji, Paul Horn, Lance Rosenfield, Sabrina Shankman, Marcus Stern, John Bolger, and Hannah Robbins) and members of Center for Public Integrity, and The Weather Channel for their collaboration in bringing national attention to the story. 2015 Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi Award for informational Graphics, (with Paul Horn) 2015 Loeb Award for Explanatory Reporting, (staff of InsideClimate News) 2016 Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, staff of InsideClimate News, The Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel.

2016: Exxon series In 2016, Song, and her fellow journalists were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. They were also finalists for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

They received the following awards for the same series:

(2015) Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Environmental Writing The Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing Co-Winner in the Digital Investigative, Division I, Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award Robert F. Kennedy Award, New Media Winner

The Edgar A. Poe Award, presented to them at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, by President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama. The Scripps Howard Edward J. Meeman Award for Outstanding Environmental Journalism. In awarding the prize for their reporting on Exxon, the judges commented on the reporting, saying: 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.

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

Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global warming Decades Ago Exxon Believed Deep Dive Into Climate Research Would Protect Its Business Exxon Confirmed Global Warming Consensus in 1982 with In-House Climate Models Exxon's Business Ambition Collided with Climate Change Under a Distant Sea Highlighting the Allure of Synfuels, Exxon Played Down the Climate Risks Exxon Sowed Doubt About Climate Science for Decades by Stressing Uncertainty Exxon Made Deep Cuts in Climate Research Budget in the 1980s More Exxon Documents Show How Much it Knew About Climate 35 Years Ago Exxon's Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers in the 1970s Too Internal Documents published by InsideClimate News