I'm a reporter at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where I cover the environment, coastal restoration, and the fossil fuel industry in Louisiana. My work combines data analysis, accountability reporting, and narrative journalism. I've investigated thousands of oil wells drilled on land that have since sunk into the Gulf of Mexico, reported on what happens after the country's first climate relocation, and covered the political forces reshaping flood protection in one of the most vulnerable places in the country.
I've also reported for VICE News, New York Focus, and Columbia Journalism Investigations, where I co-authored a national investigation into the failures of climate relocation programs across the United States. My work has been published by The Center for Public Integrity, SSENSE, The Nation, Jewish Currents, and NBC News, among other outlets. I have an MA in science journalism from Columbia University.
Get in touch
For sensitive tips, I use Signal: reach me at alexlubben.16. You can also send encrypted email using my PGP public key. For everything else, email me at alexlubben@gmail.com or alex.lubben@theadvocate.com.
Selected Work
Sinking into the Gulf
For The Times-Picayune, I built an original dataset to find that more than 3,600 oil wells drilled on land along Louisiana's coast have sunk into the Gulf of Mexico as the land around them disappeared. Many are leaking. Hundreds may fall to taxpayers to clean up. The state doesn't track them.
Will the nation's first climate relocation unravel?
In 2016, a Louisiana tribal community became the focus of the first federally funded climate relocation in the United States. Nearly a decade later, I visited the residents in their new homes and found that property taxes, insurance costs, and utility bills are threatening to unravel the program. One resident is selling his truck to pay his tax bill. A Nebraska company has already bought a lien on his house.
Harm's Way
As a fellow with Columbia Journalism Investigations, I co-authored a national investigation into the failures of climate relocation programs across the United States.
Inside the "White Gold" Rush to Mine American Lithium
I went to Nevada to meet the modern-day prospectors on the hunt for lithium in the American West. There's a rush underway and private companies are making money speculating on the high concentrations of lithium on public lands — but no new mines are being built. It's a lithium rush without any lithium.
Need Food Stamps in New York? Come Back in a Few Months
Data showed that counties across New York force families to wait months for food stamps — a violation of federal law. Anyone who applies for food stamps is owed a response within 30 days but in some parts of the state, more than half of SNAP applications were processed illegally late.
Houston's solution to climate change is to force low-income people to move
In October 2022, I went to Texas to cover an unprecedented "mandatory flood buyout" program that was forcing low-income residents to relocate due to escalating flood risk. Following our reporting, Harris County provided additional funding for some undocumented residents — up to $230,000 in relocation assistance, up from $30,000.
More Work
Times-Picayune
- New Orleans levee board sees rising turmoil after resignations, allegation police chief was punched
- 'Hit me': Tensions boil over at New Orleans flood protection agency over controversial changes
- Federal reports describe dire conditions at psychiatric hospital in Mandeville — Won 3rd place, news story, Louisiana Press Association
- State gives troubled Mandeville psychiatric hospital one last chance to stay open
- A mosquito-eating fish faces a bizarre mutation. Is the northshore's sewage to blame?
- Northshore homes are leaking raw sewage and polluting Lake Pontchartrain. Will a new law help?
- Extinct? Not extinct? Die-hards refuse to give up on ivory-billed woodpecker.
- Survivors of Louisiana I-55 crash recall the terror. — Part of coverage winning 2nd place, deadline reporting, Green Eyeshade Awards
VICE News
- We're buying into a giant lie about plastic
- Demoralized EPA employees brace for 'wholesale war on the environment'
- Hear Trump's judge pick admit he discriminates against gay people
- The Keystone oil spill no one's talking about will be nearly impossible to clean up
- PG&E's blackouts are making it harder to measure California's wildfire air quality
Freelance
- Climate change could wipe $108 billion from U.S. property market, study finds — NBC News
- The climate won't stop changing in 2100 — The Nation
- Changing the climate — Jewish Currents (review of Naomi Klein's On Fire)
- The founder's dilemma — The Awl
- Consider the shroom — SSENSE