Liza Tucker

Liza Tucker is a consumer advocate for Consumer Watchdog, following everything from oil and gas to the regulation of toxic substances in the state of California. She comes to us from Marketplace, the largest U.S. broadcast show on business and economics heard by ten million listeners each week on 400 radio stations. Liza worked at this public radio show for a decade, first as Commentary Editor and then as Senior Editor for both Washington and Sustainability News. At Marketplace, Liza produced and edited several special feature series from who funds Washington think tanks to the BP oil spill. Liza has worked as a journalist, consultant, teacher, and translator.

Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Liza spent a few years in Bologna, Italy. She covered business at The Washington Post and later free-lanced her way through the Soviet Union, covering its collapse for Time, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. Liza is fluent in Russian and speaks Italian. She taught journalism at Allegheny College.  She also served as a consultant to the MacArthur Foundation awarding individual grants in the areas of independent media, women’s rights, and legal reform, and to US AID on how to support independent media in Ukraine. She translated Alexandra’s letters to Nicholas for The Fall of the Romanovs, published by Yale University Press. She traveled through Europe in 2009 as a German Marshall Fund Fellow studying German, French, Danish, and British approaches to sustainability. She holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Liza Tucker

State of California Oil 2026: Accountability For Oil Companies Is So Much Bigger Than Newsom

Gavin Newsom learned a lesson from Jerry Brown’s last year in office. He saw how Brown’s refusal to deal with the supply side of...

Californians Overpaid $59 Billion At The Gas Pump For A Decade, Advocates Decry Industry Tactics At Energy Commission

At a California Energy Commission meeting advocates expressed outrage at the oil industry’s stonewalling of reform

In Wake of Few 3rd Q Drilling Permits, New Data Confirm California’s Oil Production in Irreversible Decline

Los Angeles, CA--Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance said today that the latest oil and gas data confirms a long-term, irreversible trend. California's oil production...

Trump May Do Us A Favor By Blocking One Of Newsom’s Worst “Low Carbon” Solutions

Trump has called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”  His Department of Energy is acting accordingly by canceling lots of...

Fact Check: Newsom’s $60 Billion Savings From Cap-and-Trade Is A Sham

During the signing of the reauthorization bill for cap-and-trade this year, AB 1207 (Irwin), Governor Newsom claimed the bill would result in $60 billion...

Consumer Watchdog Urges Governor, Now in NYC for Climate Week, To Be A Climate Leader By Vetoing Dangerous Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Legislation

Los Angeles, CA—Consumer Watchdog is urging Governor Newsom to veto SB 614 (Stern), a bill that lifts a moratorium on the construction of pipelines...

Now That California Resources Corp. Will Buy Rival Berry Corp., It’s Time for Newsom to Demand Full Bonding to Avoid Taxpayers Holding the Bag

California regulators have not held the largest onshore oil producer in the state, California Resources Corp., adequately financially responsible for the wells of acquired companies such...

Oil Lobbyists Demand No Setback In Carbon Pipeline Legislation, Threatening Public

Los Angeles, CA—Two oil and gas lobbyists are refusing to have included into two carbon pipeline bills legislative language creating a safe buffer zone...

Air Regulators Turned Lobbyists Lead To False Conclusions About Need For Carbon Capture in Cap-and-Trade, Consumer Watchdog Tells Legislative Leaders

Los Angeles, CA -- As lawmakers take up Cap-and-Trade for extension to 2045, they should reject any lobbyist pressure to include Carbon Capture and Storage...

Newsom Oil Permits At Standstill, But New Administration Proposal Could Lead to Approval of 4,700 More Oil Wells Next Year

Los Angeles, CA — No new drilling permits for oil and gas wells were approved in the second quarter of 2025, extending a promising...

Carbon Pipeline Bills Play Roulette With Public Health, Help Big Oil 

Two bills are moving through the California legislature that would lift a state moratorium on building carbon dioxide pipelines. The 2022 moratorium was imposed...

Minimal New Oil Well Permits in Q1 2025, But Kern County and CO₂ Pipeline Bills Threaten Climate Progress, Say Advocacy Groups

Los Angeles, CA — State oil and gas regulators approved just three new drilling permits in the first quarter of 2025 compared to zero...

GEORGE BRAUE

Getting basic information about how insurers arrive at wildfire risk ratings that can send premiums to stratospheric levels has been impossible for homeowner George...

New 2024 CA Oil Drilling Permits Drop to 73 As Groups Reveal Oil Regulators Halved Bonding for State’s Now Biggest Onshore Oil Well Operator

Los Angeles, CA—While approvals for new oil well drilling permits in California dwindled to 73 in 2024–from 2,664 in 2019 when Governor Newsom took...

FRANK EGGER

Frank Egger’s home insurance story mirrors many others whose home insurance policies were non-renewed and who faced the CA FAIR Plan as the alternative....

NATALIE S

Natalie is calling out home insurers for raising rates but not giving homeowners and their communities credit for the work they have already done,...

LINDA DANNELS

FAIR Plan insurance premiums are rising so much that some people have made the hard choice to drop the wrap around policies bought to...

MAUREEN O’CONNOR

Maureen O’Connor knows what it feels like to have her home insurance non-renewed not once but twice.  The first time she managed to get...

ANN MITCHELL

Last year, Ann Mitchell paid Farmers a $3,467 annual home insurance premium. Upon renewal last July, and without any warning, her premium nearly quadrupled...

RENEE PASQUINELLI

Renee Pasquinelli has a mantra when it comes to insurers using black box catastrophe models to sweepingly rate California properties as high wildfire risk....

SUSAN C

After speaking with her elected representatives, her home insurance company, and contacting the California Insurance Department, Susan still has no answers justifying why her...

MARK BURTON

Mark Burton is the poster child for obscene AAA home insurance premium hikes in recent years. The latest hike came to $14,601 for his...

EVAN CERVANTES 

Evan Cervantes lives in a heavily residential area with busy streets in Sunland in a house on a 5,000-square foot lot.  He has a...

BRUCE BRESLAU

Bruce Breslau is a communications professional who lives with his husband in the California West community on the historic Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth....

GIGI BANNISTER

California homeowners are not just facing losing their comprehensive home insurance and being forced onto the CA FAIR Plan for wildfire coverage.

Groups Question Oil Industry Influence Over CALGEM As Newsom Well Regulator Approves Midnight Permits & Fails To Require Well Bonding

Los Angeles, CA - Oil regulators approved 35 new oil and gas well drilling permits in the second quarter of 2024, about half of which were potentially...

CA Draws Straight Line Between Low Gasoline Supplies And Price Spikes At The Pump, Maintaining 15 Days Or More Of Supply Is Sweet Spot

The California Energy Commission and newly created Division of Petroleum Market Oversight provided valuable analysis at a recent workshop on the summer outlook for...

FRAN LANCASTER

Fran Lancaster, a retiree living in Poway outside of San Diego, has had Farmers home insurance for 20 years and has never filed a single claim.

KAREN LOBER

Karen Lober says she feels screwed by her home insurance company.  She bought her house on a mountain in Colfax in 2019, and State...

JENNIFER DENICOLA 

If California homeowners want to know what might be in store for them when renewal time comes around for their home insurance policies, Jennifer...

Newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, press releases and special reports.

Don't miss

Support Consumer Watchdog