Rebecca Smith is a national energy reporter in the Los Angeles bureau of The Wall Street Journal. She joined the paper in August 1999.

Ms. Smith began her journalism career in 1977 as a reporter/photographer for the weekly Friday Harbor (Wash.) Journal. She moved to the Daily (Okla.) Oklahoman in 1978 as a copy editor and then joined the business reporting staff of the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune in 1985. Her next move was to the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News as a reporter in 1992 where she covered consumer issues, including energy deregulation. She was a consumer affairs reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1998 to mid-1999.

Ms. Smith won the 2001 Gerald Loeb Award for beat reporting for her energy coverage in 2000. In 1996, she shared a Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished financial and economics reporting, and received a California Award for Excellence in economic writing. She won a John Hancock Award for distinguished financial writing in 1990.

Born in Omaha, Neb., Ms. Smith earned a bachelor's degree, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, from the University of Washington in Seattle and a master's degree from Mills College in Oakland, Calif.