3-13-08 by dugan California lawmakers were full of sound and fury last night over oil prices, oil profits, and oil taxes, but the end of the script was written before the first red-faced…
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Archive | Author: Judy Dugan
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Three-Penny Operatics
3-12-08 by dugan When oil marketing lobbyists argue that motorists don’t need or deserve a fix for the "hot fuel" ripoff, their fallback is that a consumer loss of a few cents a…
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Other Side of Exxon’s Mouth
3-07-08 by dugan The next time you pump $70 worth of $3.50 a gallon gasoline into your tank, munch on this thought: When ExxonMobil defends its $41 billion yearly profit profit to us angry…
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Fuel Issue Sizzles in DC, CA
3-06-08 by dugan $4.00 gasoline isn’t a prediction any more, despite the fact that President Bush hadn’t heard a word about it. There are California stations charging up to $3.99 for regular and nearly…
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Ben Stein Gets Money for This?
Ben Stein’s popular fame comes from Comedy Central’s "Win Ben Stein’s Money." Or his TV ads pitching Alaskan fish. But the New York Times still takes him to be a serious economist. Stein’s Op-Ed today…
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More for Oil, Nada for Stimulus
02-29-08 by dugan The headline of this column in U.S. News, by Marianne Lavelle, says it all: "Signing Your Economic Stimulus to the Saudis." Or not quite all. She could have added …"and…
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Inuits vs. Exxon: Might Work
2-28-08 by dugan It’s a Hail-Mary pass, but the Alaskan Inuit lawsuit against the oil industry on global warming just might work. It may come down to how the judge views the definition of…
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Congressional Kabuki
2-27-08 by dugan Could oil companies that collectively made $123 billion last year afford to give up $1.8 billion a year (less than 1.5% of annual profit) from the tax subsidies that you and…
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What? Politics at the EPA?
2-26-08 by dugan Here’s a (not) shocking development. Newly released documents show that the oil buddies at the White House may have interfered in the Environmental Protection Agency’s rejection of California’s new tailpipe…
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Oil, Inflation … Action?
2-27-08 by dugan If oil were shoes, its price would be sinking today like a 6-inch spike heel on the beach. Oil and gasoline consumption are down nationwide and U.S. stocks of oil…
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How Hot Fuel Fix Got Axed
2-22-08 by dugan Is this week’s early-stage victory for a national lawsuit against the "hot fuel" ripoff important? Ever more so, Considering the collapse of would-be regulation to fix it. Here’s a memo…
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Economy Under the Heel of Oil
2-20-08 by dugan Remember last year’s stories about how resilient the U.S. economy seemed in the face of rising energy prices? What a different story today, with energy prices driving a scary rate…
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Price Spike, in Spades
2-19-08 by dugan Let’s see. Gasoline is up eight cents a gallon in the last week for regular. Oil prices hit $100 a barrel today, ginned up by speculators "worried" about Venezuela, Nigeria,…