Abrahm Lustgarten writes about energy, water, climate change and anything else having to do with the environment. Before coming to ProPublica in 2008, he was a staff writer and contributor for Fortune, and has written for Wired, Salon, Esquire, the Washington Post and the New York Times. At ProPublica, his investigation into fracking for natural gas was recognized with the George Polk award for environmental reporting, a National Press Foundation award for best energy writing, a Sigma Delta Chi award and was a finalist for Harvard's Goldsmith Prize. His reporting on BP and the Deepwater Horizon tragedy was nominated for an Emmy.
Abrahm earned his master's in journalism from Columbia University in 2003 and is the author of Run to Failure: BP and the Making of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, and also China’s Great Train: Beijing’s Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet, a project that was funded in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Articles
July 18, 11:50 a.m.
State’s drought has forced farmers to rely on groundwater, even as California aquifers have been intentionally polluted due to exemptions for oil industry.
March 13, 5:45 a.m.
The energy giant raised the cash it needed to survive by slashing royalties it paid property owners to drill on their land.
Aug. 13, 2013, 10:20 a.m.
Income from oil and gas production doesn’t always trickle down to landowners, as companies find ways to minimize the share they pay in royalties.
July 3, 2013, 11:58 a.m.
When the Environmental Protection Agency abruptly retreated on its investigation into water contamination in a central Wyoming natural gas field recently, it shocked environmentalists and energy industry supporters alike.
March 13, 2013, 6 a.m.
The EPA changed its stance on an aquifer exemption needed for a uranium mining project in Goliad County, Texas, after prominent Democratic lobbyist Heather Podesta made entreaties to one of its top administrators
Feb. 23, 2013, 9:59 p.m.
Native Americans on an oil-rich reservation have been cheated out of more than $1 billion by schemes to buy drilling rights for lowball prices — and the federal government failed in its legal obligation to ensure a fair deal, lawsuits claim.
Feb. 4, 2013, 4:57 p.m.
ProPublica updates its database of regulatory oversight in oil and gas producing states, adding data on agency budgets and wells used to inject waste.
Feb. 4, 2013, 4:57 p.m.
How big is the natural gas drilling regulatory staff in your state?
Jan. 25, 2013, 9:49 a.m.
Mexico City is planning to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, challenging U.S. policy that water far underground can be intentionally polluted because it will never be used.
Dec. 26, 2012, 10:54 a.m.
A battle over uranium mining at Christensen Ranch, a remote 35,000-acre tract in Wyoming, could shape decisions nationwide as mining surges in drought-stricken areas.
Dec. 11, 2012, 1:01 a.m.
Even as water grows more precious, the Environmental Protection Agency has permitted oil and gas, mining and other industries to contaminate aquifers in more than 1,500 places, many of them in Western states stricken by drought.
Nov. 29, 2012, 8:54 a.m.
The government's decision to at least temporarily ban BP from federal contracts is a result of not just the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, but years of safety problems at the oil giant.
Nov. 28, 2012, 10:44 a.m.
The EPA is considering whether to bar BP from receiving government contracts, a move that would ultimately cost the company billions in revenue and could end its drilling in federally controlled oil fields.
Nov. 15, 2012, 6:12 p.m.
The Justice Department indicts three BP managers for their roles in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and its aftermath. The company also will pay a $4.5 billion fine, the largest ever levied on a corporation.
Sep. 20, 2012, 11:12 a.m.
As the boom in oil and gas drilling sends a surge of waste into underground injection wells, safeguards for disposing of these materials are sometimes being ignored or circumvented.
Sep. 20, 2012, 11:11 a.m.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, ProPublica collected annual state regulatory summaries for the underground injection of waste that were submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency between late 2007 and late 2010.
July 9, 2012, 2 p.m.
Researchers show natural fluids are migrating from thousands of feet underground and reaching drinking water supplies, raising concerns that man-made chemicals and waste could do the same.
June 21, 2012, 9:01 a.m.
For most of the last decade, Rev. David Hudson has pressed regulators to find out whether his town’s water contamination is related to injection wells. He’s still waiting.
June 21, 2012, 9:01 a.m.
Gas seeps from underground injection wells and triggers explosions in a Kansas town.
June 21, 2012, 9 a.m.
A landmark case in Ohio topples scientific assumptions as wells guaranteed to entrap waste for at least 10,000 years spring a leak in less than 25.
