Ella Nilsen
Ella Nilsen covers the politics and policy of the climate crisis for CNN, focusing on how decisions made in Washington shape the energy system, environmental regulation, and people’s lives. Her reporting stands out for translating dense, technical climate and energy issues into clear, concrete stories that foreground both political power struggles and on-the-ground consequences.
Climate politics and federal energy decisions
Nilsen’s core focus is the intersection of national politics and energy policy, often zeroing in on federal agencies and the high-stakes choices they make. In her coverage of efforts by the Trump administration to pursue a deal to provide weapons-grade plutonium to energy companies, she follows the chain from obscure nuclear policy to questions of safety, corporate interests, and executive-branch priorities. Across similar pieces, she tracks how agencies like the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency use their authority, explaining what regulatory changes mean for fossil fuel producers, utilities, and clean energy developers.
She routinely frames energy stories as political stories: who is lobbying for a pipeline or a refinery, which lawmakers are pressing regulators behind the scenes, and how industry-friendly moves contrast with climate commitments. Her work tends to surface the conflict points—within administrations, between Congress and the White House, and between federal and state officials—rather than treating policy as a technical sidebar. She brings a particular rigor to questions of risk and accountability, pressing beyond announcements to what they change in practice for companies, communities, and the climate.
Biden’s climate agenda and the clean energy transition
Nilsen is a key interpreter of the Biden administration’s climate agenda, especially its large spending packages and regulatory push to accelerate decarbonization. She follows the life cycle of major climate laws from passage through implementation, explaining how tax credits, grants, and subsidies for clean energy and electric vehicles are structured and who can access them. Her stories often look at how the Inflation Reduction Act and related measures are reshaping investment decisions for solar, wind, batteries, and other technologies, and where political or legal challenges could slow that transition.
Rather than treating legislation as a single news moment, she returns to the same policies as they roll out, tracking rulemakings, guidance, and court fights that determine how ambitious climate goals translate into real-world emissions cuts. She spends substantial time on the political coalition-building around climate—how Democrats message climate spending, how Republicans critique it, and how business groups, labor, and environmental advocates try to steer the outcomes. Her coverage makes procedural details like reconciliation rules, permitting debates, and regulatory timelines accessible without losing their complexity.
Climate impacts, science, and affected communities
Alongside policy coverage, Nilsen reports on how a warming climate is showing up in extreme weather, public health, and local economies, and how these impacts feed back into politics. She frequently draws on climate science and data to place events like record-breaking heat, wildfires, storms, or droughts in a long-term context, connecting them to emissions trends and international climate goals. These pieces pair charts and expert analysis with reporting from people dealing with higher energy bills, failing infrastructure, or chronic exposure to pollution.
Environmental justice is a recurring thread in her work. She highlights communities that face disproportionate climate and pollution burdens, and examines whether federal policies deliver for those groups or replicate older inequities. When she covers new rules or funding streams, she looks for who is left out, which programs are oversubscribed, and how implementation choices can either narrow or widen gaps between regions and populations. This gives her climate reporting a grounded, human lens that complements its policy detail.
Political reporting lineage and explanatory style
Nilsen’s climate beat is built on a foundation of political reporting. Before joining CNN’s climate and environment team, she covered Congress and national politics for a digital news outlet, with a focus on legislation and party dynamics. That background shows in her comfort with process-heavy stories—committee negotiations, leadership battles, and the mechanics of passing or blocking major bills—and in her attention to how climate policy interacts with elections and partisan strategy.
Her work often takes the form of deep explainers and enterprise features rather than quick, reactive hits. She is methodical about unpacking jargon-heavy concepts like clean energy tax equity structures, carbon rules for power plants, or nuclear fuel standards, using straightforward language and concrete examples. Interviews with lawmakers, administration officials, industry representatives, and independent experts underpin her stories, but the narrative through-line stays focused on what is changing, why it matters, and who will feel the effects. The result is coverage that treats climate as a defining political and economic story, not a niche environmental silo.
4 more politics journalists.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Alex Swoyer
Alex Swoyer covers national politics through the lens of the law, treating court cases and filings as core political documents rather than a separate legal niche. She reports for the Washington Times on the Supreme Court, federal courts and the justice system’s intersection with campaigns, Congress and the presidency. Her coverage follows political disputes as they move into courtrooms, focusing on cases that affect elections, executive power, immigration, religious liberty and gun rights. She explains opinions, dissents and procedural moves in plain language, grounding stories in briefs, oral arguments, orders and government records, then pairing them with reaction from officials, strategists and advocacy groups. She also reports on election rules, January 6 prosecutions, politically sensitive investigations, Republican Party dynamics and campaign‑trail narratives, using straight news, explainers and roundups to show how law, institutions and political ambition meet.
Alexander Mallin
Alexander Mallin stands out for turning dense Justice Department and federal court actions into clear, step-by-step reporting for ABC News. He covers politics through law enforcement and the courts, with a core beat on special counsel investigations, federal prosecutions, and clashes between the executive branch, Congress, and federal prosecutors. His reporting tracks interview transcripts, subpoena fights, indictments, plea deals, trial outcomes, and other court filings, especially in cases tied to President Joe Biden, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and other high-profile political conflicts. He also covers transparency fights over investigative records and explains the statutes, rules, and institutional mechanics behind grand juries, redactions, and special counsel appointments. His stories are document-heavy, restrained, and focused on what prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges are doing on the record.
Allie Kelly
Allie Kelly is a politics reporter at Business Insider who treats US politics as a story about personalities, performance, and the internet. She covers the intersection of political figures, online culture, and how power is exercised in public. Her work follows elected officials and rising players across parties, focusing on how they brand themselves, test messages, and respond to scrutiny. She often writes about memes, viral moments, and tools like meme coins as real campaign tactics and communication strategies. Her reporting explains how digital culture shapes electoral politics, party tensions, and governance. She favors short, accessible pieces built around vivid examples, like a lawmaker launching a DOGE-style coin, to explain broader trends. She uses clear, plain language, grounding each story in who holds power, what they are doing, and why their online choices matter.