Press Release
Sacramento, CA — Consumer Watchdog told a state panel looking into gasoline price manipulation today that a handful of big oil refiners have been able to charge California drivers 70 cents to $1 more per gallon than the rest of America because they have an information advantage over the rest of the market, the public and regulators.
Press Release
Sacramento, CA — Consumer Watchdog today revealed to a state oversight panel new tactics by which California oil refiners had their most profitable years ever and state drivers paid more at the pump than ever before compared to US drivers.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — California has broken all records for the biggest gap between what consumers here have paid so far versus the rest of the nation for gas at the pump, Consumer Watchdog said today. Californians paid $1.2 billion more, after tax differentials, than the rest of the nation in the month of July, a record, and $4.8 billion more for their gasoline over the last six months ending July 31st, since gas price spikes started. That amounts to $201 extra dollars paid by each California driver.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA—Responding to a shutdown of two refineries that produce 16 percent of the state’s gasoline, Consumer Watchdog called on state officials to send independent inspectors to verify refinery claims that the shutdowns were really necessary.
Blog Post
The energy investigators who nailed Enron for energy price manipulation that nearly bankrupted California just took aim at oil refining giants including Chevron and BP. May the refiners’ gasoline-price schemes now come crashing down in…
British oil giant BP would like us all to forget its record oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, a deadly 2005 explosion at its Texas City oil refinery and a major Alaskan…
Blog Post
A deadly brew of corporate carelessness and failed regulation caused the natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight residents in a quiet neighborhood of San Bruno, CA., says a long-awaited report by the National Transportation Safety Board….
Blog Post
If the U.S. ends the coming weekend without national debt limit deal, it won’t just be bond defaults sending the nation back into a deep, ugly recession. A hint came Tuesday as the price of…
Blog Post
Exxon is still fumbling to deal with a 42,000-gallon oil pipeline spill on the Yellowstone River west of Billings, Montana. Its initial response was pathetic–it was slow to turn off the gushing pipeline, had no…
Blog Post
I remember days and nights spent at a rewrite desk in Washington 25 years ago, taking in and editing nearly unbelievable information from reporters in Russia and Western Europe. Where was this place, Chernobyl? Was…
An Ecuadorean judge’s ruling Monday that Chevron owes $8.8 billion for oil-drilling damage and pollution in the Amazon is far less than asked. But it’s far more than Chevron intends to pay–which is zero, except…
Blog Post
Every time BP or its hired claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg drip out a little information about Feinberg’s pay deal and BP’s control of the process, it raises even deeper suspicions. I guess Feinberg’s independence from BP all depends on your definition of “independent.”
Blog Post
We’ve been watching the refining company Valero since it spent $5 million last year attempting to kill California’s landmark global warming law. Ads for the ballot measure pounded on the idea that killing pollution controls would protect jobs. So does Valero really believe in protecting jobs? Ask the nearly 1,000 contract workers summarily dismissed from Valero’s Aruba plant (pictured) 16 months ago.
