Online Nonprofit InsideClimate News Wins Pulitzer

Lisa Song

Elizabeth McGowan

InsideClimate News won the Pulitzer Monday for national reporting for its reports on problems in the regulation of the nation's oil pipelines. Founded five years ago, InsideClimateNews reports on energy and the environment. Writers Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer were recognized for an investigation into a Canadian oil spill. The reporters went on to look more broadly at pipeline safety and the particular hazards of a form of oil called diluted bitumen, or "dilbit."

David Hasemyer

Specifically, the trio took top honors in the category for their work on "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," a project that began with a seven-month investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. It broadened into an examination of national pipeline safety issues, and how unprepared the nation is for the impending flood of imports of a more corrosive and more dangerous form of oil.

InsideClimate News is five-year-old non-profit, non-partisan news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science. Its  mission is to produce objective stories that give the public and decision-makers the information they need to navigate the heat and emotion of the climate and energy debates. It has grown from a founding staff of two to a mature virtual newsroom of seven full-time professional journalists and a growing network of contributors.  (ABC News, 4/15/2013, Inside Climate News)