Bloomberg team wins award for energy coverage

The National Press Foundation has awarded the 2010 Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing to a Bloomberg News team for an explanatory magazine series on alternative energy sources.

The pieces comprised a three-part series in Bloomberg Markets.

Written by John Lippert, Kambiz Foroohar, Anthony Effinger and Katherine Burton, the package looks at the advantages, drawbacks and real-world prospects of algae biofuel and shale natural gas, and gives one example of an ethanol co-op gone wrong. It’s illustrated by glorious photos and clean, helpful graphics that take readers on a deep dive into some of the most talked-about alternative energy sources. The result is a good read — colorful, balanced, and offering up enough new information to make the reader feel smarter.

Each writer will receive a citation, and they will share a $1,000 prize.

The Stokes Award was established in the spring of 1959 by friends and admirers of the late Thomas L. Stokes, the syndicated Washington columnist on national affairs. It was to be given annually for the best writing “in the independent spirit of Tom Stokes” on subjects of interest to him including energy and natural resources.

Bloomberg Markets has won more of the top business and investigative journalism awards in the past 10 years than its competitors combined. So far in 2011, the magazine has won more than 20 major awards and was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist.