Consumer Watchdog’s President and Chairman of the Board is an award-winning and nationally recognized consumer advocate. Capitol Weekly, naming Jamie to its “Top 100” list of unelected movers and shakers in California politics, wrote, “Court has made a career of battling all comers in the interest of the public, and his take-no-prisoners approach has earned him plenty of enemies.” Jamie’s latest book is The Progressive’s Guide To Raising Hell: How To Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws And Get The Change You Voted For (Chelsea Green, 2010).
“Americans angry about the state of their government might find in Court’s persuasive manifesto a cause for action,” Publishers Weekly writes. “With great accessibility and a fired-up attitude, Court brings his lessons in empowerment to the people.” He is also the author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Freedom And What You Can Do About It (Tarcher Putnam, 2003) and co-author of Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat To Your Health (Common Courage Press, 1999). Jamie has led dozens of major corporate and political campaigns to reform insurers, banks, technology companies, oil companies, utilities and political practices. He helped to pioneer the HMO patients’ rights movement in the United States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere, and was an early champion of many of the most important consumer protections in the federal Affordable Care Act years before they were enacted. In recent years, he has led the campaign to hold California oil refiners accountable for price gouging at the pump which resulted in the toughest oil refinery regulation in America.
A frequent media commentator and op-ed contributor, Jamie is a high-profile and stalwart defender of consumers’ rights. The Los Angeles Times calls him “a tireless consumer advocate.” The Wall Street Journal writes, “He’s notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks on the health- and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who takes their campaign cash.” His public interest career began as an advocate for the homeless and as a community organizer. Jamie’s Alma mater is Pomona College, where he graduated with a BA in History in 1989.
PUC Papers Site Reveals 100,000 Plus Internal Emails and Documents That Shine Light On Utilities Corruption Ring During Governor Brown Era
Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog has launched the first searchable website with hundreds of thousands of emails and other files uncovered from corruption scandals at the California Public Utilities Commission during Governor Jerry Brown's Administration.
Can Drugmaking Goliath’s $100 Million War Chest Stop David’s Rx Relief Ballot Measure?
Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik recently took on the "drug money" against a November ballot measure to require the state to pay the lowest price available for prescription drugs, which is the Veterans Administration prices.
Gas Price Panel Ponders Refiner Market Power With Summer Prices Set To Sizzle
It's probably hard to feel the sting of state gasoline prices, that are 70 cents per gallon above US prices, when you are in an ivory tower. Perhaps that's why some of the academics on California Energy Commission's Petroleum Market Advisory Committee (PMAC) are taking a slow train to recommendations about how to fix the Golden State gouge that's been causing pain at the gas pump for the last year.
Consumer Watchdog Calls For Sunlight On Big Oil Refiners To Avert CA Gasoline Price Spikes; State Energy Commission Panel To Make Recommendations On Transparency...
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog told a state panel looking into gasoline price manipulation today that a handful of big oil refiners have been able to charge California drivers 70 cents to $1 more per gallon than the rest of America because they have an information advantage over the rest of the market, the public and regulators.
State Senate To Hold Hearings On Phony Blackout Blackmail Report
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and that goes for blackout threats too.
CPUC President and Energy Regulators Should Explain “Blackout Blackmail†Lies In State Reports About Aliso Blackouts Under Oath, Consumer Watchdog Says
Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog has written legislative leaders to call for answers under oath from PUC President Michael Picker and other energy regulators about why state reports misrepresented Southern California natural gas reserves and capacity to invoke the threat of blackouts if Aliso Canyon’s gas reserves are shut down.
FPPC Opens Investigation Into Governor’s Top Aide For Failure To Disclose Timing of Stock Sales In PG&E
Santa Monica, CA -- Following an ethics complaint filed by Consumer Watchdog against the Governor’s top aide, the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has opened an investigation into Nancy McFadden’s failure to report the dates and times of stock sales in PG&E, her former employer, while having inside information into the government’s investigation of PG&E over the San Bruno ex