How long have you been doing the "Muckraker" column for Grist? How often does it appear?

I'll admit I had to look back in the archives to recall the debut date, September 2003 – so it's over two years old. Amazing to think of the breadth of political change that has occurred since then. At first the column appeared as three bite-sized news briefs per week, but it was soon clear that the subject matter is so technically dense and wide-ranging it was hard to keep the coverage that brief, particularly if we wanted to add context and a dash of style and humor to the writing. After several months we began publishing two longer pieces weekly, and have since consolidated to one more well-developed column per week.

Besides the column, you occasionally interview prominent figures in the environmental arena for Grist. Do you currently write for other publications as well – publications other than Salon, which also publishes the "Muckraker" column?

Yes, I am a half-time employee of Grist and spend the rest of my hours on freelance assignments. My writing on energy and the environment has appeared in print publications including The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Outside, Wired, New York Magazine, The Nation, and newspapers including The Washington Post and The New York Times. I am currently working on a feature for Vanity Fair on General Electric's new climate change strategy, and recently published a feature in Rolling Stone profiling the top 25 heroes and warriors of global warming.

The column examines environmental and energy policy issues in considerable detail. Many are primarily federal in nature. Are you based in Washington? What is your principal aim – explaining and interpreting complex debates, breaking news, highlighting undercovered issues, or something else entirely?

I am on the phone with Beltway sources daily, but I am actually based in Nashville, Tennessee (my husband is in the music industry). I spend one week a month in my former home base, New York City, where most of my print editors are headquartered.

My aim is all of the above -- explaining and interpreting complex debates, highlighting undercovered issues, and whenever possible, breaking news. Needless to say, because I am neither based in D.C. nor working for a large-scale news outlet, it is harder for me to break news than a Beltway reporter at a major newspaper. But thanks to the telecommuting wizardry we all now enjoy, I am steadily growing my D.C. source pool by phone and e-mail, and my location is becoming less of a liability. Going forward, I certainly hope to raise the profile of "Muckraker" and Grist with more news-breaking columns.

If I do cover a subject that has been widely reported, I try to situate it in a new context, or bring new insights, analysis, and compelling language to it. Another crucial goal of both "Muckraker" and Grist is changing the way environmental news is written using spirited, non-preachy, accessible language as free of wonky terminology as possible. Much of the coverage in environmental and political newswires is laden with scientific arcana and policy jargon that's great for those in the know, but limits the readership of environmental news at a time when the mainstream needs to be informed.

What characteristics of an issue make it more likely that you'll write about it?

I love chronicling the shift toward energy independence and away from fossil fuels -- stories that illuminate the connections between environmental concerns, economic growth and foreign policy. Grist founder Chip Giller made a good observation in one of his op-eds that "the environment ought to a big-tent issue, but in reality it's the size of a yurt." The best way to expand visibility of environmental news is to show how intimately connected it is to issues that the American mainstream cares about. Economic progress and conflict in the Middle East are certainly at the top of that list.

The word "muckraker" has forceful and not always positive conotations. One dictionary's definition of muckraking is "searching out and publicizing scandalous information about famous people in an underhanded way." On the other hand, many investigative journalists are proud to be called muckrakers. What did you want that name to convey about the nature of your column?

I think my role as a muckraker is to search out and expose the truth about energy and environmental policy in America, and put it in the full glare of the public eye. Under the current administration, more often than not, that truth happens to be scandalous.

I think most readers, regardless of their own point of view, would say that Grist produces journalism from a generally environmentalist perspective. Grist founder and president Chip Giller told Environment Writer in a 2003 interview that Grist doesn't take stands on specific issues, but "we do hope for environmental quality to be improved." Is that a fair characterization of your own approach in your column?

I'd put it a shade differently: I hope for public knowledge on these issues to be broadened and improved. That in turn will spur improvements in environmental quality. I want to emphasize that I don't at all intend to write "Muckraker" for an environmentalist, activist, liberal or conservative audience, but for a general audience.

When did the arrangement begin under which Salon also publishes "Muckraker"? Are all of your Grist columns also published in Salon or only a selection? Does the column typically appear on the same day in both Grist and Salon?

Salon's syndication of "Muckraker" began a few months after the column debuted. Salon publishes about 95 percent of the columns -- occasionally one of the topics will be too local or esoteric so they'll skip it, but that's rare. The Salon column typically appears a day or two after the Grist publication.

Do you think the Salon arrangement has brought more readers to Grist?

Absolutely, and vice versa – that’s what partnerships between online media outlets are all about.