06-20-08 After reading all too much recently about what Chicago-based owner Sam Zell wants to do the Los Angeles Times (hyperlocal! shorter! charts! lists! less news, more ads!), I was struck by this long, smart…
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Archive | Author: Judy Dugan
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Why cheaper gas is right
06-20-08 by dugan I’ve gotten some e-mails telling OilWatchdog that it’s off course in asking drivers to send their gas bills to Congress and demand some action to get prices down. One group says we…
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Enron loophole fix is law
06-20-08 Finally. After a clerical bungle that sent the farm bill through two Congressional votes, two presidential vetoes and two Congressional override votes, it and the "Close the Enron Loophole" amendment are law. It’s a…
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The lie of coastal oil drilling
06-19-08 by dugan It’s easy to understand why President Bush and Sen. John McCain are getting media and public traction from their demand that California, Florida and other coastal states open up their shorelines to…
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Bush wants west’s water
06-18-08 What I heard today in President Bush’s push to extract Western shale oil was this: Let’s subsidize Big Oil to turn Southern California into a desert and huge swaths of the West into polluted,…
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McCain and Market Regulation
06-17-08 by dugan Sen. John McCain’s call today to lift a federal ban on drilling off the nation’s coastline won’t win him friends in California, and probably Florida, but the part of his…
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Regulate Oil Prices? How Quaint
6-14-08 by dugan This business short in Saturday papers caught my eye. Not because a federal court turned down Chevron’s demand for a $101-million tax refund, but because it referred to a time when…
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Greed for pennies
Just when you think big oil companies like ExxonMobil might be content with tens of billions of yearly profits, they surprise you by grasping for pennies. This time it’s not just the driver at the…
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Filibuster saves Big Oil. Again.
6-10-08 by dugan The Senate was barely in session today when Republican leaders used a parliamentary maneuver to cut off all debate on a pair of bills to get oil and gasoline prices under control…
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Get it done, already!
6-9-08 by dugan With gasoline at $4.04 nationally, and nearly $4.50 in California and a few other states, Washington is sleepwalking. President Bush today still had no better idea than drilling for oil in the…
Press Release
Oil Market Out of Control
NEWS RELEASE: Oil Price Spike to $138 a Barrel Shows a Market Out of Control, Says Consumer Watchdog Price Spike Follows Self-Serving Prediction of $150 a Barrel, Israeli Threat Against Iran; U.S. Government Must Speed…
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Hot summer, hot fuel
6-04-08 by dugan One of the reasons I hear for the continued rise in natural gas prices is that it’s going to be a very hot summer in much of the country. Lots of air…
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Up fast, down like a feather
6-4-08 by dugan Gasoline prices, that is. I can say it in one short sentence: Oil prices down, gasoline futures contracts way down, pump prices still spiking. As they say on Marketplace Radio, let’s do…