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 Protection Agency is tightening the standard for how much soot in the air is safe to breathe. Fine particles come from the combustion of fossil fuels by cars and industrial facilities. They're linked to all kinds of health problems, including heart attacks and lung ailments like asthma. States will be required to clean up their air to the level specified by the new standard.
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The wolf known as 832F was taking a rare jaunt outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park when she was killed last week. Though her death is a blow to those who followed her story, some say hunting is a necessary part of the future of wolves in the West. -
The rules, which come two decades after Congress ordered the agency to regulate toxic air pollution, would give power plants nationwide just three more years to slash mercury and other harmful emissions. But some big power plants are angling for more time. -
The Obama administration on Thursday issued a new rule to slash pollution from coal-fired power plants that cause unhealthy air in 27 states. This replaces a Bush-era rule that was overturned by the courts. -
Scientists have begun cleanup efforts in some of the regions that were most affected by oil from the BP spill last April. They're trying to establish which methods — if any — work best. -
President Obama's tougher new fuel efficiency standards bring industry, environmentalists and states together to start cutting greenhouse gas emissions from cars. But the reductions would represent only a drop in the bucket of what's needed to address global warming.
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has canceled scores of oil and gas leases sold by the Bush administration in Utah's red rock country. The sales would have brought $6 million to the government, in addition to royalties on any oil or gas production.
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President-elect Barack Obama named Dr. Steven Chu as energy secretary and filled other key environmental posts Monday. Environmental activists say Obama's picks show a greater commitment to improving the environment than his predecessor, President Bush.
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Legislators in the House and Senate came to an agreement this week on a proposal to increase the fuel efficiency standard for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports that the outlook for the legislation remains uncertain.
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American Electric Power, an Ohio-based company, has agreed to a $4.6 billion settlement of a lawsuit over pollution controls at its power plants. The Justice Department says it's the biggest environmental enforcement settlement ever.
