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

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...

MICHELLE GRADNIGO

Michelle Gradnigo is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and health care administrator who moved from Germany to Paradise, CA, in October 2021 for a...

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...

DEBORAH CARTER

Deborah Carter, a retired nurse, lives in the mountains of Santa Cruz. For years and years, her home insurance was through Farmers. Then, after the...

SCOTT D

Scott D. lived in densely populated Southern California for 15 years before getting away from it all. In 2005, he moved up North to...

KQED-FM (Radio) – San Francisco, CA: California Regulators Did Not Approve A Single New Oil Or Gas Drilling Permit During The 3 Months Of...

By Staff Reporters, KQED-FM – San Francisco, CA  Click below to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment.

New Oil Drilling Permit Approvals Fall To Zero For First Time Since Newsom Came To Office, Making History, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance Say

Los Angeles, CA—In a historic first, California oil regulators approved zero new drilling permits in the first quarter of 2024, effectively halting new drilling...

PATTI CASAS

For Patti, big homeowner insurance rate hikes are old news. She lives in a two-story townhouse at Laguna Village in Laguna Hills. It’s one...

JUDY MCDERMOTT

After 40 years of coverage, Judy McDermott has had it with her home insurer, State Farm. In November of 2023, her annual home insurance...

CRC Play To Buy Aera Is Way To Avoid Plugging Idle Wells, Extending Life Of Depleted Oil Fields Via Unproven Technology, Say Consumer Watchdog...

Los Angeles, CA—Oil giant California Resources Corp’s purchase of Aera Energy for just half the price it fetched two years ago is a ploy...

Oil Drilling Permit Approvals Cratered In 2023; Plummeting Production Calls for Plugging Idle Wells, Chevron Wells Produce Only 3 Barrels of Oil Per Day 

Los Angeles, CA—California oil regulators issued 95% fewer permits to drill new wells and 25% fewer to fix or redrill existing wells during 2023...

Watchdog Wants Legislative Investigation Into CA Department of Finance $300 Million Understatement of Bottle Deposit Funds As Means to Stop Spending on Reforms

Sacramento, CA— Consumer Watchdog called upon the Senate and Assembly budget chairs to investigate the Department of Finance’s understatement of available funds in CalRecycle’s...

Oil Drillers Mislead With Advertising Claims That Decreased CA Crude Oil Production Policies Lead To High Gas Prices

Los Angeles, CA -- In a barrage of deceptive Facebook and television advertisements, oil drillers, masquerading as “Californians for Energy Independence,” are falsely claiming limiting...

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Commissioner Lara Approves Unjustified $749 Million State Farm Home Insurance Rate Hike

UPDATED 1:40PM Los Angeles, CA – A proposed decision recommending...

Surveillance Pricing Bill Moves Forward

AB 446 prohibits businesses from using personal information of a consumer to adjust the price of goods.

NEWS RELEASE: Surveillance Pricing Bill Moves Forward

AB 446 Stops Businesses From Setting Prices Based on Data.

Consumer Watchdog Urges Denial of State Farm’s Emergency Rate Hike at Conclusion of Department of Insurance Hearing

Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog delivers its closing argument...
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