Emily Gosden

The energy crisis has been the biggest story of the past year, leaving businesses and the government scrambling to deal with the fallout of soaring prices and mounting security of supply threats.

Emily Gosden, The Times's energy editor, has set the agenda with her work. She used her contacts across the energy industry and beyond to reveal early details of how Britain would respond to the crisis in ways that would impact the climate and consumers. In March she was the first to report that coal-fired power generators had been approached by the government about remaining open to ease the winter power crisis - and in June she revealed that National Grid was scrambling to roll out a scheme that would pay households to use less power at peak times.

With soaring prices and profits, energy businesses have found themselves in an intensely political environment. Emily used her understanding of the political dynamics surrounding the industry to interrogate big business in a way that fundamentally shaped the government’s response. Her interview with BP's chief executive in May has been widely cited as the reason for the government’s decision to perform a u-turn and impose a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers.

Bernard Looney spoke to numerous media outlets on the day of its first-quarter results, but Emily asked the crucial question that led him to admit that BP’s investment plans would be unaffected by a windfall tax. The comments were seized upon by opposition politicians and made the government’s prior opposition to a tax untenable. The energy profits levy was subsequently dubbed the “Looney Levy” by disgruntled industry rivals in reference to Emily's interview, which one member of the government referred to as “the most expensive interview in history”.