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.
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“Gas Pain” At Pump and Smokestack
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…
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Ohio’s Earthquake: Top 10 New Ways to Use Toxic Gas-Drilling Waste
Ohio has shut down the natural gas drilling wastewater disposal well that triggers earthquakes. Politicians are finally reacting to drinking water contamination, too. We need new disposal methods for the salty, toxic waste and ways to hold oil companies accountable. Here are 10 great ways to do both!
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2012: Few Jobs, But Gobs of Profit for Oil
The reviled “jobless recovery” of the U.S. economy won’t improve much in 2012, say the usual forecasters. But oil company executives and market speculators can break out the champagne now as the price of crude oil starts the year with a huge jump. It’s not about Iranian threats or rising demand, it’s about speculative profits.
BP Lies Down With Russia, Gets Up With Fleas
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…
Wall Street Oil Speculators Hurt Families, U.S. Economy
OilWatchdog and other critics of commodity speculation have long said that rampant speculation in oil futures markets has hurt families, cost jobs and kept the U.S. economy teetering on the edge of recession. Energy analyst…
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Fracking and Yakking
Exxon Mobil, which is making big bets worldwide on hydraulic fracturing for deeply buried natural gas, is also making big bets on its sincere, earnest advertising about clean, safe natural gas. The ads turn me into a…
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State’s Drivers Ease Up On The Gas
“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.
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Report on Gas Blast Sounds Too Familiar
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….
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Oil Drops 14%, Gas Only 3.4% – Fuel Prices Vary Significantly
“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.
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Why Is Gasoline Price Staying High?
The old adage about gasoline prices, “up like a rocket, down like a feather,” has never been so true. The price of crude oil in recent days has been down near $80 a barrel, translating…
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Natural Gas Drillers: ‘We Don’t Need Your Stinking Air Rules’
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…
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Oil Will Grease a Debt-Limit Recession
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…