Ernest Scheyder

About

Ernest Scheyder is a journalist for Reuters and author whose work chronicles the people and places at the center of our global energy transitions. His book, "The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives" (One Signal/Simon & Schuster, 2024), was longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and the Financial Times/Schroders Business Book of the Year. It was also named the American Energy Society’s Energy Book of the Year and won the Axiom Business Book Award. Scheyder’s work has been featured in NPR, TIME, Fast Company, Marketplace, On Point, Barron’s, ABC News Live and other outlets. He is a frequent speaker, moderator and panelist at a range of conferences. As a detailed work of literary reportage, "The War Below" offers audiences an unprecedented look at the growing tension over where and how we source the lithium, copper, rare earths and other building blocks used to build electric vehicles, cell phones, and millions of devices. At Reuters, Scheyder previously wrote about the U.S. shale revolution – drawing on a two-year stint based in oil-rich North Dakota – as well as natural disasters, mass casualty incidents, and sporting events. He embedded with the Biden presidential campaign in 2020. He has interviewed a range of corporate, political and cultural leaders, including then-U.S. Senator (and current U.S. Secretary of State) Marco Rubio, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, actor Hugh Jackman, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, and Nigerian oil minister Ibe Kachikwu. Along with colleagues, Scheyder was awarded a Society of News Design Award of Excellence for an investigation into deep-sea mining. His report on the ubiquity of the chemical bisphenol A was named a finalist for a Deadline Club award. He worked at The Associated Press as a business reporter from 2007 to 2009, chronicling the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns during the early days of the global financial crisis. A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine, where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 2021, and Columbia Journalism School. He has completed the NYC Marathon ten times in support of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and lives in Houston with his family.