Press Release
Santa Monica, CA—California refinery shutdowns and slowdowns are boosting refinery profit margins by as much as 72 percent, according to a key indicator called “crack spreads,” Consumer Watchdog said today.
News Clipping
Activist Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, calls it capitulation. “After you get bonked on the head by $4 and $5 gasoline enough times, maybe it doesn’t hurt as much,” Court said.
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.
News Clipping
“There’s an old saying in [the] gasoline [industry],” Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, Calif., said Monday. “Prices go up like a rocket and down like a feather. There is a higher disconnect between the actual price of oil and the price of gasoline.” Gasoline prices have been viewed as the “last bastion of competition,” Dugan said, “but in this case that appears to have failed.” Still, gasoline prices in the state vary significantly.
News Clipping
California-based nonprofit, Consumer Watchdog, recently provided a clue to where the “missing” gasoline may have gone. Recently, Judy Dugan, a petroleum market commentator for Consumer Watchdog, noted that the shares of oil refiners jumped in price last month “on bets that Japan would soon have to import a lot more heating oil and gasoline because of refinery fires and quake/ tsunami damage.”
News Clipping
The new blends cost an estimated 5 to 15 cents more to make per gallon than standard-issue, regular gas. Plus, California became dependent on a limited number of refineries, and those refineries reaped higher profit margins than similar facilities elsewhere in the United States. “It’s a stranded market, and it’s much easier to control prices in a stranded market,” said Judy Dugan, research director of the Consumer Watchdog nonprofit group.
News Clipping
The panel named by President Obama to investigate the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout on Tuesday rejected a call by a consumer activist group for the resignation of its chief counsel, Fred H. Bartlit Jr. The group, Consumer Watchdog, said that the panel should dismiss Mr. Bartlit because his law firm, Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, once represented Halliburton, one of the companies involved in drilling the BP well.
News Clipping
Retailers, refiners say ups, downs hit them too By Alison Sider, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Though gasoline prices have fallen from nearly $4 a gallon in the summer of 2008, now hovering close to $2.60 for a…
News Clipping
BP’s Ties to Agency Are Long and Complex By Helene Cooper + John M. Broder, THE NEW YORK TIMES May 25, 2010 WASHINGTON — Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu…
News Clipping
Blaming Big Oil Critics see price-gouging as refinery capacity is cut; the industry says it’s just business. By Editorial, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES March 15, 2010 A few years ago, when SUVs still ruled American…
News Clipping
Oil Companies Look At Permanent Refinery Cutbacks The response to slumping gasoline use would likely mean higher prices for drivers. Consumer advocates want regulators to examine the firms’ plans. By Ronald D. White, THE LOS…
News Clipping
Why Californians Are Paying Even More For Gas By David R. Baker, THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE September 24, 2009 Californians usually pay more for gasoline than do other Americans. But not this much more. A…
News Clipping
Oil Speculators On The Run Government may clamp down on banks, funds and others that don’t actually use crude. But will new rules bring down prices? By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMONEY.COM September 2, 2009 NEW YORK,…
