Jake Bittle is a staff writer at the nonprofit news outlet Grist, where he covers climate change and the environment. He is the author of The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration, which was published in 2023. He has written about climate, energy, and other issues for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and numerous other outlets.
Bittle is currently working on a book about the transformation of Bakersfield, California. This polluted city in California’s Central Valley has long relied on two extractive industries, oil and agriculture, but California’s ambitious climate policies have hobbled both industries over the past decade. At the same time, the city has undergone a profound demographic and political shift, changing from a sleepy conservative town to a fast-growing and diverse destination for young people and immigrants. This book follows the oil workers, farmers, activists, and government officials who are navigating this turbulent transition and building a new clean economy out of the ashes of the old one.
Selected Work
- Inside a California oil town’s divisive plan to survive the energy transition: This feature article for Grist explores Bakersfield's embrace of a controversial carbon capture project. The largest oil companies in the area are hoping that carbon-capture technology will allow them to pivot toward clean energy and survive an onslaught from California regulators.
- How can California solve its water woes? By flooding its best farmland.: This feature article for Grist documents another controversial experiment in California's San Joaquin Valley. Instead of building dams or pumping groundwater, some farmers are now choosing to surrender prime land, creating nature preserves that can recharge aquifers and prevent flood damage. These projects could help solve the state's water shortage, but they face opposition from the biggest farming companies and water districts.
- How One Restaurateur Transformed America’s Energy Industry: This profile in The New York Times Magazine examines the career of Charif Souki, the man who made the United States into the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Reported in the first months of the Ukraine war, the story documents how a gnomic and Aspen-loving restaurateur spawned a multibillion-dollar industry almost by accident, with huge implications for geopolitics and the global climate fight.