NPF Award Goes to Collaborative Project on Fracking

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Foundation has awarded its Thomas L. Stokes award for energy writing to three news organizations for their collaborative in-depth look at hydraulic fracturing in Texas.

InsideClimate News, the Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel share the Stokes award for their partnership that produced "Big Oil, Bad Air."  Journalists from the three organizations combined extensive data analysis with narrative reporting, video, photos and graphics. They zeroed in on the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, a microcosm of the fracking phenomenon.

NPF judges said of the winning work: "First-rate investigative work with a human pulse. The collaborative project blended hard facts with a powerful narrative of real people that made you care. The description of fracking consequences in Texas is now playing out elsewhere, in the Bakken and Utica shales. The project triggered meaningful impact, forcing concessions from state regulators."

The reporting team for the project included Lisa Song and David Hasemyer of InsideClimate News, Jim Morris from CPI, and Greg Gilderman of The Weather Channel.

Judges for the Stokes award were Ronnie Greene of The Associated Press, Rod Kuckro of EnergyWire, and Chris Mooney of The Washington Post.

The Thomas L. Stokes Award was established in the spring of 1959 by friends and admirers of the late Thomas L. Stokes, the syndicated Washington columnist on national affairs. It was to be given annually for the best writing "in the independent spirit of Tom Stokes" on subjects of interest to him including energy and natural resources.

The primary mission of the National Press Foundation is to increase journalists' knowledge of complex issues in order to improve public understanding. The nonprofit foundation recognizes and encourages excellence in journalism through its awards and programs. A complete list of awards is here. More information about NPF programs is on our website.

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SOURCE National Press Foundation