Sara Sneath

About

I'm a climate journalist investigating the fossil fuel industry’s influence on universities, public narratives, and policy at the University of Miami's Climate Accountability Lab. Before journalism, I served in the U.S. Marine Corps and used my Post-9/11 GI Bill to earn a B.S. in journalism and a B.A. in sociology. Over the past decade, I’ve reported on communities living on the frontlines of climate change and next door to polluting industries. My work has covered offshore drilling, oil and gas industry fatalities, and fossil fuel disinformation campaigns. I’ve written for outlets including The Guardian, The Washington Post, ProPublica, DeSmog, Drilled, The Lens, Louisiana Illuminator, The Times-Picayune, and The Victoria Advocate in Texas. In 2025, my work on a Guardian story about the harrowing hours after a naphtha leak at Marathon’s Louisiana refinery won the Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting; our reporting exposed how the company downplayed the event in records submitted to state regulators and revealed that toxic pollution had escaped the facility. In 2023, Unearthed recognized a story I led — on BP oil spill cleanup workers who filed lawsuits over chronic illnesses linked to the disaster — as one of the year’s best pieces of environmental journalism. In 2020, I was part of the reporting team that won the Society of Environmental Journalists' Kevin Carmody Award for our investigation into the impacts of Louisiana’s industrial pollution. My work has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Journalismfund Europe, and the Fund for Environmental Journalism. Earlier in my career, while covering the environment for The Victoria Advocate, I was named Journalist of the Year by the Local Media Association—an Excellence in News Coverage award given to reporters whose work deepens public understanding and reflects strong storytelling. Most recently, I completed two coding courses with Operation Spark, a nonprofit software bootcamp in New Orleans. When I’m not reporting, you can usually find me biking or exploring with my four-legged sidekick, Goose. Follow me on Bluesky: @sarasneath.bsky.social.