Tracking the politics of pollution, climate change and emerging green technologies.
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA –The Sacramento Superior Court granted a motion for preliminary injunction against the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) pending final outcome of a lawsuit filed by Consumer Watchdog counsel and Strumwasser & Woocher on behalf of Consumer Watchdog and three other groups over the illegal demolition and disposal of radioactive debris from Boeing’s Santa Susana nuclear reactor and rocket engine test site.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Monday night’s explosion and hours-long fire at Chevron’s large oil refinery in Richmond, Ca., released toxic chemicals including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in unknown amounts, sending hundreds of local residents to local hospitals with breathing and eye complaints. Yet the state agency with the most expertise in regulating such toxins, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, claims it has little to no oversight of dangerous substances produced in refinery accidents, said Consumer Watchdog.
Blog Post
Shell Oil wants a 90-percent safety reduction in its “Arctic readiness?” No wonder it can’t take a joke, especially from Greenpeace.
Blog Post
The word “fracking” exploded into the American vocabulary just a few years ago. People from Pennsylvania to Wyoming found chemicals creeping into their drinking water; some could light flammable gases straight from the faucet (video).as oil companies injected chemical-laced water deep underground to fracture gas-bearing rock. But in California, a narrow industry definition of fracking and the inattention of regulators kept the state mostly out of the conversation.
Blog Post
This California license plate, “Gas Pain,” might be the sly joke of a gastroenterologist, but it’s not on a Mercedes. So let’s stipulate that it means pain at the pump, with a gallon of regular…
News Clipping
“The pain in their wallets is causing them to rethink their lifestyles,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, a frequent critic of Big Oil. “People tend to be a lot more environmentally conscious when just ignoring it is going to cost them something.” The changes are even more significant, Court said, given the steady rise in the number of drivers. “It shows that ultimately we can solve both the higher emission problem and the higher consumption problem associated with more drivers if we can continue to improve fuel efficiency technology,” Court said.
Blog Post
Whenever regulators try to clean up our air or water, industry issues its standard “job killer” press release. Let your children keep their asthma and we won’t shut down our (oil, gas, coal) (refinery, drilling…
(Rancho Mirage, CA)–A year ago, it’s unlikely that 15 people would have shown up for a rally against the Koch brothers, owners of the largest privately owned corporation in the U.S, even in the middle…
Blog Post
There’s still room for more at the “Uncloak the Kochs” rally Sunday in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, CA. The occasion is a meeting, once intended to be secret, of climate deniers and political funders sponsored by energy mega-billionaires David and Charles Koch. The idea? Seek an antidote to Mad Billionaire’s Disease.
Blog Post
Oil refiner Valero, as it pumped $5 million into a California ballot proposition aimed at killing climate change regulation, warned that such regulation would bring an economic Armageddon of lost jobs in refineries and elsewhere,…
Report
A new report by Oil Watchdog finds that Valero Energy reaped over $4.5 billion in refining profit while gouging California motorists since it bought its second California refinery in 2002. The oil refining giant, which is also the largest funder of Proposition 23, averaged 37% higher margins on each barrel of oil it refined in California than at refineries it owns elsewhere in the country, according to data published in company financial reports.
Blog Post
There’s a name that’s becoming as ubiquitous in dirty oil politics as Coke cans are in greasy spoons. And it’s pronounced like the soft drink, but spelled Koch. Koch-heads now on the radar include Carly Fiorina, the Tea Party and Proposition 23.
Blog Post
It’s amazing how oil companies stay so completely on message. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry mouthpiece, is pushing the same deceptive “jobs, jobs, jobs” message as the Texas oil companies backing Proposition 23…
