Investigation Explores Dueling Narratives for Addressing Climate Change

Carbon capture could have disproportionate impact on the low-income communities living near fossil fuel infrastructure, suggests Inside Story contributor Nicholas Kusnetz. Above, Valero’s Houston refinery borders two sides of a residential neighborhood. Photo: Courtesy Nicholas Kusnetz.

Inside Story: Investigation Explores Dueling Narratives for Addressing Climate Change

Nicholas Kusnetz's "Pipe Dreams" series for Inside Climate News aimed to determine whether carbon capture is a viable climate solution or just a diversion, and explored the impact of the carbon capture industry on climate policy. The series uncovered how the oil industry effectively lobbied for billions in federal funding for carbon capture and storage.

Judges with the Society of Environmental Journalists annual awards program praised Kusnetz for making a complex story accessible and highlighting the oil industry's impact on climate policy. The series won first place for outstanding explanatory reporting, small in the Society of Environmental Journalists' 22nd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment.

SEJournal Online caught up with Kusnetz by email. Here is the conversation.

SEJournal: How did you get your winning story idea?

Nicholas Kusnetz: I had been following carbon capture and storage since 2020 as a climate reporter covering oil and gas. But in 2021, with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, the technology started to get unprecedented levels of funding. The Bipartisan Infrastructure bill passed that year included more than $12 billion, and I knew that any larger climate legislation would most likely include even more money. It was a lobbying coup for the industry and made me think the issue warranted more attention.

SEJournal: What was the biggest challenge in reporting the pieces and how did you solve that challenge?

 

What I was really writing about

were dueling narratives for how

to address climate change.

 

Kusnetz: One challenge was the fact that, with few exceptions, I was writing about projects that don't exist. What I was really writing about were dueling narratives for how to address climate change. I tried to focus on whatever numbers, data and research did exist and scrutinized it as closely as possible, using that to test against what companies were saying was possible and help readers understand how realistic these promises were.

SEJournal: What most surprised you about your findings?

Kusnetz: I was continually surprised at how fast the story was moving. When I started on the series, there was a handful of applications submitted to the EPA for underground injection, for example. By the time I was done, there were a couple of dozen, and it's taken off even faster since then.

SEJournal: How did you decide to tell the series and why?

Nicholas Kusnetz

Kusnetz: The series had a mixture of story types. Some were more straightforward accountability stories, where I'd learned something new that wasn't public or wasn't widely known. But I also wanted to try to ground the stories in the world and with people. It was difficult because these projects were just proposals, but I thought it was important to try to ask what these new technologies might mean for people living near where they would happen, especially in fossil fuel-dependent communities.

SEJournal: Does the issue covered in your story have disproportional impact on people of low income, or people with a particular ethnic or racial background? What efforts, if any, did you make to include perspectives of people who may feel that journalists have left them out of public conversation over the years?

Kusnetz: Carbon capture and storage could have disproportionate impact on low-income communities and people of color, insofar as these communities are more likely to live near fossil fuel infrastructure, and carbon capture would likely piggyback on that existing network. One story focused on Houston, and I traveled to some neighborhoods closest to the petrochemical and refinery network there, which are home to many Latinx people. I don't know whether I did a great job of this, but it was important for me to try to include the perspectives of people in those neighborhoods in the story. It was difficult because most people had never heard of any of the proposed projects I was writing about.

SEJournal: What would you do differently now, if anything, in reporting or telling the series and why?

Kusnetz: There were, for sure, issues I didn't cover or didn't cover as well as I would have liked to. But this story isn't over and I'm still reporting on this topic, so I'm trying to learn as I go and fill in the holes I see.

SEJournal: What lessons have you learned from your series?

Kusnetz: The reporting made me very familiar with the technical issues involved. The deeper I got, the more knowledgeable I got, but also my perspective got farther and farther away from that of most people, that of my readers. I really valued talking to colleagues and friends about this as a reminder of what mattered to people who weren't knee-deep in the story, and what struck them as important.

SEJournal: What practical advice would you give to other reporters pursuing similar projects, including any specific techniques or tools you used and could tell us more about?

 

A couple of my stories came

because I was out mixing

with people in the industry

and had my ears open.

 

Kusnetz: There was nothing unique to this topic, just use every tool you have. I relied on academic research and experts and public records requests. I will say that getting out to conferences can be helpful. A couple of my stories came because I was out mixing with people in the industry and had my ears open and happened to run into people who then led me to stories others hadn't covered.

SEJournal: Could you characterize the resources that went into producing your prize-winning reporting (estimated costs, i.e., legal, travel or other; or estimated hours spent by the team to produce)? Did you receive any grants or fellowships to support it?

Kusnetz: The reporting involved two trips, one of which I was able to make dual purpose because it was for an industry conference I cover regularly in Houston. So it was definitely a couple of thousand dollars in travel expenses, which were my only meaningful expenses and which my employer can thankfully cover. In terms of hours spent, this was the bulk of my enterprise reporting for the year, though I also produced lots of shorter stories that were not part of the series.

[Editor’s Note: For more on carbon capture, read our Issue Backgrounder. Plus, watch a short video from Kusnetz after receiving his SEJ award (see below or click here), plus insight into how he saw powerful interests inform this important debate.

Nicholas Kusnetz is a reporter for Inside Climate News. Before joining ICN, he worked at the Center for Public Integrity and ProPublica. His work has won numerous awards, including from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, and has appeared in more than a dozen publications, including The Washington Post, Businessweek, The Nation, Fast Company and The New York Times.

SEJ Awards 2023: Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Small from SEJ: Society of Env. Journalists on Vimeo.

 

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 9, No. 33. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.