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
Blog Post
Gasoline Pump Prices Line Refiners’ Pockets
The financial news today is that oil prices are down below $90 a barrel from over $100, and futures market prices for gasoline are down 5% to below $3.00 a gallon. Will that translate to…
Blog Post
$4 Gasoline and the Price of Silver: Yeah, There’s a Connection
U.S. gas prices have hit their highest level ever for springtime, at $3.96 a gallon for regular on average. Yep, higher even than the record surge in 2008, as oil companies reap near-record profits. So…
Blog Post
Chevron Witness Pay: Is It Really Hush Money?
Chevron’s army of lawyers isn’t its only weapon in staving off the demand of Ecuadoran peasants that the company clean up its toxic drilling mess in the Amazon. Chevron is also happy to use deception, secret video and dirty tricksters. The problem with tricksters, however, is that it can be hard to keep them in the fold, and they can be so darned greedy. Consider the tale of secret videotaper Diego Borja, and the “expense money”of at least $169,000 that Chevron has heaped on him since August 2009.
Is There a ‘Gashole’ in Your Tank?
The price of gasoline is up a dollar in the last year to $3.83 a gallon nationally. Good time to see a strange, funny, disturbing documentary called “Gashole” about how this happens. Who knew that Congressional hearings featuring oil company CEOS could be simultaneously hilarious and horrifiying? Or that “Reefer Madness” provides a clue to how oil companies distract us from the real issues?
Blog Post
$4.00 Gas: It’s Not Just the Oil Price
Oil companies are making a fortune off of drivers with oil at $109 a barrel (which comes to $2.60 a gallon at 42 gallons per barrel). But they’re getting rich a second time refining the oil into gasoline.
News Clipping
Gas Prices Keep Soaring As U.S. Fuels Other Countries’ Growth
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.”
$4.00 Gasoline: Let’s Bet Against the Future
Monday’s jump in oil prices to more than $108 a barrel, with the price of gasoline above $3.66 a gallon for regular ($4.06 in California), triggered a flood of news stories. But the dry, just-the-facts…
Blog Post
Japan Meltdown: Human Error Starts in the Boardroom
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…
Blog Post
As Japan Fears Catastrophe, U.S. Energy Chief Says ‘Don’t Worry’
The U.S. is fiddling on nuclear reactor safety while Japan burns. The worst threat in Japan now comes from spent nuclear fuel stored in poorly protected water pools–just like in the United States.
Blog Post
Japan’s Nukes and Refineries: What’s Going Untold
Japan’s struggle to avoid full-on meltdown at nuclear reactors that lost cooling power after the quake. The shutdown of major Japanese oil refineries. Both raise questions that scream for answers about corporate and government behavior….
Blog Post
Absolute Gasoline Price Record in 2011?
The federal agency that tracks energy prices is predicting record annual gasoline prices for 2011–$3.56 per gallon on average for the full year, higher than the economy-wrecking $3.35 per gallon average price of 2008. The…
News Clipping
Why California Drivers Pay More For Gasoline
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.