06-19-08 by dugan It’s easy to understand why President Bush and Sen. John McCain are getting media and public traction from their demand that California, Florida and other coastal states open up their shorelines to…
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Archive | Tag: media critique
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Exxon’s Not-Such-a-Victory
5-28-08 by dugan Today’s large-shareholder revolt against Exxon’s management got just under 40% of shareholder votes today about what it got at last year’s annual meeting. Exxon viewed it as a victory, but…
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Tell a Lie Often Enough…
5-12-08 by dugan It’s a flat-out lie when oil companies say they’re only making an "average" percentage of profit compared to other companies. Furthermore, journalists shouldn’t be taking the oil industry’s figures at face value….
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Exxon Is Holdout on MTBE
5-8-08 by dugan A national lawsuit over water pollution from a gasoline additive was more than half-settled yesterday when four of the five major oil comanies agreed to pay $423 million in cleanup and other…
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Gunboats and Recession
4-25-08 by dugan Today’s $3.00 per barrel spike in crude oil was a perfect example of market traders capitalizing on hasty news. Initial reports, from military sources, said a U.S. military "contract’ ship fired on…
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Chevron in Iraq: Who’ll Pay?
3-25-08 by dugan If the major oil companies start making deals to pump Iraqi oil, who will protect their investments? If these investments become "a fact on the ground" while the U.S. still occupies…
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Plain Talk on Greed, Gas Price
I ran across an intriguing columnist today who described in plain language (not analyst-speak) the real story of gasoline prices–it’s not market forces, and it’s not global unrest or even demand. The article is in…
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“Get a Grip” View on Ethanol
3-24-08 by dugan Leave it to the Canadians to stay calm. Consider Frank Dottori, founder and former CEO of a multibillion-dollar forest products company. Nowadays he’s heading a project to turn forest and…
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Better Late, Etc…
3-20-08 by dugan Just as the oil bubble shows its first holes, the New York Times gets around to a real, meaty story on the dangers of unregulated commodity markets. It’s a story that…
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Deadly Plug-In Hybrids!
3-14-08 by dugan I’m happy to admit that Earth would be better off if we all hiked or biked to work, got our power from solar panels on the roof, wore parkas indoors rather…
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Ben Stein Gets Money for This?
Ben Stein’s popular fame comes from Comedy Central’s "Win Ben Stein’s Money." Or his TV ads pitching Alaskan fish. But the New York Times still takes him to be a serious economist. Stein’s Op-Ed today…
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Chevron’s Greenwash-and-Run
2-11-08 by dugan Chevron’s PR whizzes pulled out the stops in 2006 and early 2007 to promote the oil company’s investment in a Texas biodiesel producer. Chevron made sure that every energy reporter…
News Clipping
Distract ‘Em From the Chevy Volt
1-18-07 by dugan My greenwash antenna is waving madly. GM chief exec Rick Wagoner made a splash at the Detroit auto show earlier this week, announcing an investment in cellulosic ethanol. He offered no…