4-5-07 by Court
In response to our recent report about California gouging, oil industry flack Tupper Hull served up his usual excuses, but added this one to the list: our consumer group has "a longstanding animosity toward the business community in general…"
Excuse me, but isn’t it the oil companies that have shown a longstanding animosity to the business community? With pump prices and profits at all time highs, it is small and big businesses who are suffering the consequences most. Restaurants are paying more to receive their produce and supplies, and having to raise their prices. Airlines are paying more for jet fuel. Deliveries cost more across the board.
It always baffles me why there isn’t more of a revolt by businesses against outrageous oil company profits. With high health insurance costs, I thought one day employers would turn on HMOs and health insurers. Instead, many just canceled or pulled back on coverage for workers. It’s a lot harder to just stop buying gasoline. So there’s an undeniable ripple effect in the economy when gasoline prices hit the record levels we are seeing now. And the advocates of big business, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, need to confront that fact, regardless of how much campaign cash they have taken from Big Oil (in Arnold’s case over $2 million). We need a special session of the California legislature to deal with the problem
For the record, our Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (OW’s sponsor) has saved businesses billions of dollars on their insurance costs since Proposition 103 took effect in 1988 to regulate insurance provided to individuals and to businesses. In the last four years, we have intervened under the law with the California Department of Insurance to stop $800 million in premium increases for policyholders and businesses. Similar regulation for the oil industry, to make sure gasoline was available and affordable, would be particularly good for businesses too.