Alex Lubben

Alex Lubben is the environment reporter at The Times-Picayune/The Advocate, focused on how climate change, environmental policy and industrial projects reshape Louisiana’s landscapes and communities. His coverage stands out for tying local stories about warming waters, flood protection and coastal industry to the broader forces of climate relocation and environmental governance. He works on a small environment team and brings an investigative background that keeps legal, political and community consequences in view.

Gulf warming and climate risk in Louisiana

Lubben’s recent reporting on the Gulf of Mexico’s rapid warming and Louisiana’s position at “ground zero” reflects a beat built around climate risk rather than isolated weather events. He treats rising temperatures as a structural issue, connecting ocean science with the lived realities of coastal residents and the policies meant to protect them.

Before joining the environment desk, he worked on a national series investigating climate relocation, using data analysis and on-the-ground reporting to show how hurricanes, floods and wildfires are pushing vulnerable communities out of harm’s way and how government systems are not prepared for that challenge.

His bio describes him as reporting on climate change and environmental policy, with a focus on the environment, housing and labor, and earlier work for outlets such as VICE News. That experience gives his Gulf coverage a long-view frame, linking local warming trends to questions of displacement, infrastructure and who bears the cost of climate adaptation.

Flood protection boards and post-Katrina reforms

Lubben devotes significant attention to the institutions that manage flood protection and coastal risk, not just the storms themselves.

In one notable story, three members of a board overseeing New Orleans-area flood protection resigned in protest over controversial changes pushed by an adviser to Gov. Jeff Landry, with critics warning the moves could weaken reforms put in place after Hurricane Katrina.

He uses that kind of governance dispute to show how political decisions reverberate through levee systems, drainage projects and long-term resilience planning.

His work is cited in coverage of major wetlands litigation, including efforts by Chevron and Exxon to move Louisiana coastal damage cases into federal court, underscoring his focus on how corporate legal strategies intersect with coastal restoration and liability. On public radio, he has appeared as The Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s environment reporter to explain changes at the levee board and a flood protection agency’s move to expand its police force, translating boardroom decisions into practical consequences for enforcement and public trust. In posts promoting his stories, he points to reporting on a key adviser’s self-written contract and subsequent termination, showing a sustained interest in contracts, oversight and accountability within the flood protection apparatus. Together, these pieces show a reporter who treats flood governance as a living system shaped by law, politics and personalities, not just engineering.

SpaceX's plans for Louisiana

Lubben’s coverage of SpaceX’s potential expansion into Louisiana illustrates how he handles industrial projects that carry both economic promise and environmental risk. In a recent article, he walks through what is known about SpaceX’s plans, framed around what residents and policymakers need to understand about a possible launch site and its implications for coastal communities. On X, he tracks a government jet used by Gov.

Jeff Landry to SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas and shares maps showing where experts think launches might occur near Freshwater City, making clear how aviation movements and site speculation map onto actual marshes and coastline.

By following negotiations between state officials and a major aerospace company while foregrounding geography and expert input, he positions the story as more than a business development item. His reporting places industrial expansion within a matrix of regulatory process, local consent and environmental uncertainty, showing how new projects could alter coastal ecosystems already under pressure from climate change and erosion.

Invasive weeds blanketing Palm Lake

Lubben also spends time on quieter but telling environmental stories, such as invasive species choking local waterways. One of his recent environment pieces reports that a “disaster plant” has blanketed Palm Lake in Slidell, turning a shallow, normally serene lake into a green carpet and changing the habitat used by roosting egrets and herons.

The story stays close to the lake, describing the physical transformation and its impact on residents’ sense of place, while tracing how officials and scientists respond.

Earlier in his tenure he covered St. Tammany Parish and the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, giving him detailed knowledge of the communities and water bodies affected by these local ecological disruptions. Listings of his coverage note topics ranging from community news to city news and general assignment pieces, but his Palm Lake work shows how he now pulls those strands into a focused environment beat that treats invasive weeds, wildlife and recreation as part of the same system.

Climate relocation and national environmental investigations

Lubben’s current beat is anchored by a broader investigative career in environmental reporting. His own bio notes that his work has been published by outlets including The Center for Public Integrity, The Nation, Jewish Currents and NBC News, among others, with a consistent focus on environment, housing and labor. At Type Investigations, he is credited as reporting on climate change and environmental policy, and he participated in a multi-outlet project on climate relocation that paired data work with field reporting in communities facing hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

That track record feeds directly into his role as an environment reporter at The Times-Picayune/The Advocate, where he is part of a four-person environment team. He brings the methods of national investigations - document work, legal and policy analysis, and attention to vulnerable communities - into a beat that spans Gulf warming, flood protection governance, wetlands litigation, industrial expansion and hyperlocal ecosystem stories.

The result is coverage that treats local environmental change as both a lived reality and a policy problem, grounded in the specifics of Louisiana’s climate and coast.