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…
Archive | Misdeeds
RSS feed for this sectionDocumenting industry actions that demonstrate immorality, greed, or disregard for others.
Blog Post
What BP’s Secrecy on Payout Deals Sacrifices
We’ve reported about what’s wrong in the secrecy around BP’s payments to Kenneth Feinberg and his law firm, which is doling out compensation for BP’s devastating oil spill in the Gulf. Monday, though, the Center for Justice and Democracy got deep into the guts of the matter.
Blog Post
BP’s Cost Chiselers Back in Action
Late last week, as the presidential oil spill commission’s co-chair and staff blamed BP’s cost-cutting and “failure of management” for the devastating spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP managers claimed that the government estimate…
News Clipping
Spill Commission Defends Its Top Lawyer
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.
Blog Post
BP Cost-Cutting Was a Culture, Not a Set of Rules
Monday’s statement by a White House commission was a head-snapper. BP cost-cutting not at fault for the Gulf spill? Say what? But a closer look at the words of the commission’s general counsel says something else: That the commission’s investigation is so constricted it will never point to BP’s ferocious cost-cutting.
Blog Post
Did Halliburton Push Its ‘Cost-Cutting’ Cement?
Halliburton is the sloppy contractor with no license, bad B.O. and helpers off the street who use gravel to stretch the cement and pour your driveway without the rebar. Except writ large. And deadly. As…
Blog Post
Feinberg to Chamber: “It won’t work”
I had lunch in the Chamber of Commerce’s AIG-sponsored “Hall of Flags” today, where BP compensation fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg told the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform that the legal system is working just fine.
Blog Post
BP’s Long, Ugly History of Profit Over Safety
Anyone who thinks BP’s big new promise to put safety before profit should read or watch the ProPublica/Frontline investigation of BP’s wretched safety history. (The Frontline documentary airs Tuesday). It’s the story of a corporation that for years cut costs to fuel growth above all, viewed safety as a waste of money and baldly lied to regulators.
Press Release
Obama Should Stop BP Fund Administrator Feinberg From Giving Chamber Of Commerce Keynote Or Fire Him, Watchdog Says
Washington, DC — Consumer Watchdog asked President Obama to force BP Fund Administrator Kenneth Feinberg to withdraw from a keynote address Wednesday at a Chamber of Commerce group dedicated to eviscerating spill victims’ legal rights, and to fire Feinberg if he refuses.
Blog Post
Yes Men Pull a Double Fake on Chevron
Chevron seemed to act fast–too fast–to shoot down a spoof Monday of the oil company’s “We Agree” faux-caring ad campaign. The spoof was by the Yes Men group, whose “Chamber of Commerce” news conference last…
Press Release
Tesoro Banks On High Gas Prices In California, Touts “West Coast Premium”
Consumer Group Calls On Pension Funds to Divest From Prop 23 Backers Tesoro, Valero
Santa Monica, CA – Consumer advocates revealed an investor slide presentation by Texas-based oil company Tesoro explaining that oil refiners keep gasoline supplies especially tight on the West Coast to keep profits high through higher pump prices. The slides were included in a letter from Consumer Watchdog to California’s large public pension funds, known as CalPERS and CalSTRS, calling on the funds to divest from Tesoro and another refiner, Valero, which are the chief sponsors of Proposition 23 on the November ballot. The Investment Committee of CalPERS is meeting in Long Beach today.
Blog Post
New report documents problems at Big Oil U
Big Oil has flooded campuses with millions of dollars to pay for clean energy research at American universities, undermining tradition academic values and potentially furthering a narrow commercial research agenda, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for American Progress. Jennifer Washburn shows how Big Oil has underwritten research at top-tier universities with few protections for scientific objectivity or scholarly independence.
Press Release
Consumer Watchdog Exposes Koch Industries on Times Square Superscreen For Pollution, Tea Party Funding, and Climate Change Denial Using Coke Parody
New York, NY — A national consumer group is running a 30 second commercial on a Times Square Superscreen that challenges Koch Industries, “the largest oil company you’ve never heard of,” for its record of environmental degradation, political influence, Tea Party funding and climate change denial.