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James Bruggers

James Bruggers

Reporter, Southeast, National Environment Reporting Network

James Bruggers covers the U.S. Southeast, part of ICN’s National Environment Reporting Network. He previously covered energy and the environment for Louisville’s Courier Journal, where he worked as a correspondent for USA Today and was a member of the USA Today Network environment team. Before moving to Kentucky in 1999, Bruggers worked as a journalist in Montana, Alaska, Washington and California. Bruggers’ work has won numerous recognitions, including best beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the National Press Foundation’s Thomas Stokes Award for energy reporting. He served on the board of directors of the SEJ for 13 years, including two years as president. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Christine Bruggers.

Louisville, Kentucky skyline as photographed from the Ohio River Greenway on July 16, 2015 in Clarksville, Indiana. Credit: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Louisville’s Super-Polluting Chemical Plant Emits Not One, But Two Potent Greenhouse Gases

By Phil McKenna, James Bruggers

A cemetery stands in stark contrast to the chemical plants that surround it on Oct. 15, 2013. 'Cancer Alley' is one of the most polluted areas of the United States and lies along the once pristine Mississippi River that stretches some 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where a dense concentration of oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and other chemical industries reside alongside suburban homes. Credit: Giles Clarke/Getty Images

Does Another Plastics Plant in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Make Sense? A New Report Says No

By James Bruggers

Chris Rowe, an unemployed Blackjewel coal miner, mans a blockade of the railroad tracks that lead to the mine where he once worked on Aug. 24, 2019 in Cumberland, Kentucky. More than 300 miners in Harlan County unexpectedly found themselves unemployed when Blackjewel declared bankruptcy and shut down their mining operations. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

A Bankruptcy Judge Lets Blackjewel Shed Coal Mine Responsibilities in a Case With National Implications

By James Bruggers

A Single Chemical Plant in Louisville Emits a Super-Pollutant That Does More Climate Damage Than Every Car in the City

By Phil McKenna, James Bruggers

Unemployed Blackjewel coal miner David Pratt holds his daughter Willow as he walks across railroad tracks that lead to one of the company's mines near Cumberland, Kentucky in 2019. Blackjewel miners found themselves unemployed when the company declared bankruptcy and the workers' final paychecks bounced, leading them to blockade the tracks to prevent the train carrying the mine's final shipment of coal from leaving until they were paid their wages. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Blackjewel’s Bankruptcy Filing Is a Harbinger of Trouble Ahead for the Plummeting Coal Industry

By James Bruggers

President Roosevelt delivers a speech at the dedication of the U.S. Rural Electrification Project. Credit: Getty Images

A Legacy of the New Deal, Electric Cooperatives Struggle to Democratize and Make a Green Transition

By James Bruggers

Threaded drilling pipes are stacked at a hydraulic fracturing site owned by EQT Corp. located atop the Marcellus shale rock formation in Washington Township, Pennsylvania. Credit: Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A Decade Into the Fracking Boom, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia Haven’t Gained Much, a Study Says

By James Bruggers

U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to sign executive orders after speaking about climate change issues in the State Dining Room of the White House on January 27, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed several executive orders related to the climate change crisis on Wednesday, including one directing a pause on new oil and natural gas leases on public lands. Also pictured, left to right, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Vice President Kamala Harris. Credit: Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images

‘We Need to Be Bold,’ Biden Says, Taking the First Steps in a Major Shift in Climate Policy

By Marianne Lavelle, Agya K. Aning, Dan Gearino, David Hasemyer, James Bruggers, Katie Surma, Kristoffer Tigue, Phil McKenna

Coal is loaded onto a truck at a mine on Aug. 26, 2019 near Cumberland, Kentucky. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Coal Communities Across the Nation Want Biden to Fund an Economic Transition to Clean Power

By James Bruggers

President Joe Biden takes the oath of office during the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Credit: Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Biden Signs Sweeping Orders to Tackle Climate Change and Rollback Trump’s Anti-Environment Legacy

By Sabrina Shankman, Dan Gearino, David Hasemyer, James Bruggers, Judy Fahys, Marianne Lavelle, Phil McKenna

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) speaks alongside a bipartisan group of Democrat and Republican members of Congress as they announce a proposal for a Covid-19 relief bill on Capitol Hill on Dec. 14, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The Senate’s New Point Man on Climate Has Been the Democrats’ Most Fossil Fuel-Friendly Senator

By James Bruggers

The Rev. Raphael Warnock at the funeral in July of Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

In Georgia Senate Race, Warnock Brings a History of Black Faith Leaders’ Environmental Activism

By James Bruggers

Patrick King and Soncia King walk through flood waters from Hurricane Delta toward their home (R) which they were still repairing from damage from Hurricane Laura on October 10, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. C

The Atlantic Hurricane Season Typically Brings About a Dozen Storms. This Year It Was 30

By James Bruggers, Bob Berwyn

U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), at the U.S. Capitol in January 2019.

Biden Put Climate at the Heart of His Campaign. Now He’s Delivered Groundbreaking Nominees

By James Bruggers, David Hasemyer, Judy Fahys, Marianne Lavelle

Democratic Senate candidates Raphael Warnock (left) and Jon Ossoff of Georgia wave to supporters during a rally on Nov. 15, 2020 in Marietta, Georgia. Ossoff and Warnock face incumbent U.S. Sens. David Purdue (R-Georgia) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia) respectively in a runoff election Jan. 5. Credit: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

In Georgia, Buffeted by Hurricanes and Drought, Climate Change Is on the Ballot

By James Bruggers

Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington will soon be the first African American Catholic cardinal. Credit: Oliver Contreras/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The First African American Cardinal Is a Climate Change Leader

By James Bruggers

Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) will face off in a runoff election in January to represent Georgia in the Senate. Credit: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Senate 2020: The Loeffler-Warnock Senate Runoff in Georgia Offers Extreme Contrasts on Climate

By James Bruggers

Democrat Jon Ossoff (left) is running against Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) to represent Georgia in the Senate. Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Senate 2020: In the Perdue-Ossoff Senate Runoff, Support for Fossil Fuels Is the Dividing Line

By James Bruggers

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