Press Release
Exxon Parked Tanker In Singapore, Chevron Exported To Drive Price Spike
Santa Monica, CA — Consumer Watchdog delivered a report today to a state panel finding that California’s largest oil refiners calibrated imports and exports of gasoline to artificially inflate gasoline prices during the first nine months of 2015, when gas prices were consistently $1 per gallon higher than the nationwide average.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Consumer Watchdog said today that prices per regular gallon of gas in California were up an unprecedented 96 cents in the last month, nearly triple the 38-cent increase per gallon nationwide.
Press Release
California Gas Prices Up 70 Cents a Gallon at Pump Since February 1
Santa Monica, CA — Consumer Watchdog said it looked forward to working with Senate lawmakers who today set hearings for March on possible refinery price manipulation, as the group had requested.
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.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog said today that the retail price per gallon of gas in California has soared 53 cents between February 2, when Tesoro began shutting down its refinery in Martinez, through today. A regular gallon of California gasoline now costs an average of $2.96 a gallon.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog announced today that spot gas prices in Los Angeles have risen 25 cents since Tuesday when an explosion rocked Exxon’s Torrance refinery, according to the Energy Information Administration. Paired with Tesoro’s Martinez facility that is also shut down, 16.5% of California’s refinery capacity is affected.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Consumer Watchdog said today that the spot price of gas leapt a dime overnight, as the group had predicted in the wake of two refinery shutdowns affecting 16 percent of the state’s refining capacity.
Smoking Gun
Today’s explosion at the Torrance refinery couldn’t come at a better time—for refiners interested in driving up the price of gas.
That’s why we are calling for the California Attorney General, Governor, and lawmakers to step in. We want the Attorney General to send in some boots on the ground to rule out any price manipulation by Tesoro when it shut down its Martinez refinery. We also want to know what first caused Exxon to tell one observer that its Torrance refinery would be offline for two weeks due to a mechanical problem, and then what caused an explosion at the refinery today.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA—Responding to a shutdown of two refineries that produce 16 percent of the state’s gasoline, Consumer Watchdog called on state officials to send independent inspectors to verify refinery claims that the shutdowns were really necessary.
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.
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…
Here’s a petition from our ally Public Citizen, calling on federal regulators to quit stalling and rein in the financial speculators who are jacking up gasoline prices. It’s well worth the few seconds to click…
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.
