Elizabeth Shogren
Elizabeth Shogren is an NPR News Science Desk correspondent focused on covering environment and energy issues and news.
Since she came to NPR in 2005, Shogren's reporting has covered everything from the damage caused by the BP oil spill on the ecology of the Gulf Coast, to the persistence of industrial toxic air pollution as seen by the legacy of Tonawanda Coke near Buffalo, to the impact of climate change on American icons like grizzly bears.
Prior to NPR, Shogren spent 14 years as a reporter on a variety of beats at The Los Angeles Times, including four years reporting on environmental issues in Washington, D.C., and across the country. While working from the paper's Washington bureau, from 1993-2000, Shogren covered the White House, Congress, social policy, money and politics, and presidential campaigns. During that time, Shogren was given the opportunity to travel abroad on short-term foreign reporting assignments, including the Kosovo crisis in 1999, the Bosnian war in 1996, and Russian elections in 1993 and 1996. Before joining the Washington bureau, Shogren was based in Moscow where she covered the breakup of the Soviet Union and the rise of democracy in Russia for the newspaper.
Beginning in 1988, Shogren worked as a freelance reporter based in Moscow, publishing in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post. During that time, she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution in Prague.
Shogren's career in journalism began in the wire services. She worked for the Associated Press in Chicago and at United Press International in Albany, NY.
Throughout Shogren's career she has received numerous awards and honors including as a finalist for the 2011 Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting, the National Wildlife Federation National Conservation Achievement Award, the Meade Prize for coverage of air pollution and she was an IRE finalist. She is a member of Sigma Delta Chi and the Society of Professional Journalist.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Russian studies at the University of Virginia, Shogren went on to receive a Master of Science in journalism from Columbia University.
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The environmental agency has proposed permits that would allow oil companies to continue releasing contaminated wastewater onto the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming. NPR found last year that the EPA has been allowing oil companies to send so much wastewater onto dry land that it was creating raging streams. -
The federal government held its first ever auction for the right to build offshore wind farms on Wednesday. After 11 rounds, a Rhode Island company was the highest bidder, at $3.8 million. -
Since the 1930s, Louisiana has steadily been losing land that protects it from hurricanes and other disasters. The government board charged with protecting New Orleans from flooding sued the oil and gas industry Wednesday, arguing they are responsible for a big part of the problem. -
The Mount Charleston blue butterfly is found only in a couple of small patches high in Nevada's Spring Mountains. But the Carpenter 1 fire, which has been raging through the area since July 1, is threatening the land and scientists fear the fire could push the butterflies into extinction. -
The building housing the Environmental Protection Agency got a new name on Wednesday: it's now the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building. The former president tallied his administration's accomplishments at a renaming ceremony. -
The Standard Heights neighborhood sits next to the nation's second-largest gasoline refinery. Recently, residents learned a new truth about the plumes of exhaust they see every day: Exxon Mobil's aging refinery and petrochemical facilities — like many others — are pumping out far more pollution than the law allows. -
Taking a page from the playbook of decades past, college students are once again pressuring schools to pull investment funding from specific sectors. This time it's big oil and coal companies. But these campaigns have effects beyond the university — they're launching a new generation of activists. -
Up until now, the U.S. has had the same rules for all oil pipelines. But the EPA says pipelines that carry tar sands oil, like the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, should have special standards. That's because tar sands oil spills can release harmful air pollution and are vastly more difficult to clean up than conventional oil spills. -
Scientists say they have few weapons to wield against the poison-spined lionfish, which is gobbling up reef fish in the Bahamas and other habitats. -
It's hard to think of a hotter seat on President Obama's cabinet than the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans are increasingly attacking the EPA and its regulations as job killers. On Thursday, Republicans grilled the president's pick for that job, Gina McCarthy. Some of the toughest questions at her Senate confirmation hearing had to do with coal and climate change.
