Julie Wernau

Julie Wernau, a star business reporter for the Chicago Tribune who made a name for herself covering energy and green technology, is leaving to join The Wall Street Journal.

Based in New York for the Journal, Wernau, 33, will be reporting on soft commodities, including what she calls “the soft vices — coffee, sugar, cocoa and the main ingredient in screw drivers.” 

“I’m looking to expand into national and international reporting, and still have many, many more years left in my career,” she said Sunday. “I'll miss the Tribune like crazy. Covering energy and the utilities in particular has been a wild ride.”

A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Wernau joined the Tribune in 2009 from The Day Publishing Company, a daily newspaper covering southeastern Connecticut. She began at the Waterford Standard, a weekly newspaper in Waterford, Connecticut.

Wernau went out with bang: Her blockbuster story in Sunday’s Tribune exposed how Commonwealth Edison spent $60 million in ratepayer money for political and charitable contributions over the last eight years.