Los Angeles, CA— The operator of the Inglewood Oil Field has sued to invalidate a new law authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, AB 2716, which calls for the closing...
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog and the Container Recycling Institute have petitioned the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to take regulatory action to address the significant overpayment...
Los Angeles, CA -- While no California permits were approved in the third quarter to drill conventional oil and gas wells, 33 out of 34 were issued to drill...
Los Angeles, CA—Consumer Watchdog today said that a San Francisco-based pilot program to return consumers their CRV bottle deposit refunds was a flop and urged Mayor London Breed and...
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog said the California Senate’s passage today of Assembly Billx2-1 is a victory for all California drivers who could save $1 billion or more per year by...
Sacramento, CA — Consumer Watchdog praised the California Assembly’s passage of ABX2-1 (Hart), which requires oil refiners to keep minimum inventories in order to protect Californians from price spikes...
Sacramento, CA – Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court offered his support at Assembly hearings Thursday for ABX2-1 (Hart), Governor Newsom’s proposal to have the state require minimum inventories for...
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court offered testimony today in the legislative special session that California needs to establish a minimum inventory requirement of 15 to 18 days if...
Sacramento, CA -- Bay Area gasoline prices have spiked 20 cents over the last week, driven by the cycle of refinery maintenance and low inventories that Governor Newsom is seeking to remedy...
Sacramento, CA – In the last hours of the California legislative session, critical legislation holding oil drillers accountable for their pollution passed the California legislature and move to Governor Newsom’s...
Sacramento, CA – State data shows that refinery gasoline stocks, specifically the amount of California blending components on hand at oil refineries, has shrunk to its lowest point in nearly one...
Sacramento, CA – Critical legislation holding oil drillers accountable for their pollution has passed the California Senate Appropriations Committee and moves to the California Senate for a vote.
“California is one...
Los Angeles, CA - A plan announced by Governor Newsom today for end-of-the-session legislation requiring refiners to keep a minimum number of days of gasoline in inventory will help...
Sacramento, CA – A 30+ year veteran of California’s oil and gas oversight agency is resigning one week after Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance questioned conflicts of interest in...
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 illegally issued within the community...
Los Angeles, CA – The gap between gasoline prices in California and the United States remained under $1 for the third straight week, showing the power of California reforms to...
Sacramento, CA - Legislation charging $10,000 per day to oil wells producing less than 15 barrels per day within a half mile of a community passed out of the California...
Sacramento, CA – Legislation holding oil drillers liable for health harms caused by their wells within a half mile of a community failed to come up for a vote...
Sacramento, CA -- Legislation holding oil drillers accountable for low production wells in communities has passed the California Assembly.
AB 2716, authored by Assemblymember Isaac G. Bryan (D-55, Los Angeles),...
Sacramento, CA - As a bill holding oil drillers accountable for health harms awaits a vote on the California Assembly Floor, Chevron reported spending $3 million lobbying in the...
Sacramento, CA - Two bills holding oil drillers accountable for drilling within 3200 feet of a community passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee today by a vote of 11 -...
Sacramento, CA – In comments filed with the California Energy Commission (CEC) Friday, Consumer Watchdog made the case for a maximum gross refining margin that penalizes refiners for profits of over...
Sacramento, CA—Assembly Bill 3155 (Friedman), which creates new financial liability for oil producers for harm from community oil drilling, cleared its second policy committee today and now moves to...
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 permit approvals at 5,947 since Governor...
Sacramento, CA— Activist and cancer survivor Nalleli Cobo gave testimony today in support of Assembly Bill 3155 (Friedman), which creates new financial liability for oil producers for harm from...
Sacramento, CA -- Oil companies drilling for oil within a half mile of community residents produce a tiny trickle of oil—2.1 barrels of oil per day per well on...
Los Angeles, CA— Assemblymember Isaac G. Bryan (D-55, Los Angeles) introduced legislation today to charge $10,000 per day to oil wells producing less than 15 barrels per day within...
Sacramento, CA -- More than twenty public interest groups pointed to new state data showing that California oil refiners averaged more than $1 per gallon in gross profits during 2023...
Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog released a new Consumer Alert video exposing another deceptive oil industry tv ad attacking on Governor Newsom’s energy policies called “Make Matters Worse.” Watch the alert.
“This phony ad claims...
Sacramento, CA – While it has long been known that oil drilling can cause cancer, respiratory illnesses and birth defects, holding oil drillers liable for the illnesses caused by their...
Los Angeles, CA - Consumer Watchdog published a new Consumer Alert video today taking on a deceptive television ad by a group called Californians For Energy Independence, which records show is...
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 for Aera to avoid plugging...
Los Angeles, CA -- Consumer Watchdog said that Chevron has itself to blame for its $1.8 billion in "higher US upstream impairment charges mainly in California" discussed in its...
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today condemned the delay in the implementation of a price gouging penalty as articulated by the California Energy Commission (CEC) at a briefing this...
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 in a cratering of permit...
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 budget as way to free...
Los Angeles, CA -- In a barrage of deceptive Facebook and television advertisements, oil drillers, masquerading as “Californians for Energy Independence,” are falsely claiming limiting oil drilling in California will raise...
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog made a record of oil refiners’ profiteering in California and disinformation campaign in official comments before the California Energy Commission as it determines a price gouging penalty on...
Los Angeles, CA -- New data posted by the California Energy Commission shows that as California gasoline prices were spiking in September at $5.70 per gallon California’s big oil refiners raked in...
Sacramento, CA – Consumer Watchdog released a new video today to counter a disinformation campaign by the state’s oil refiners lobby as it seeks to discredit the price gouging penalty being...
*This press release has been updated: Valero posted 3rd Q profit on CA Gasoline Margins that are 56.5% greater than other regions, not 70%. It made 72 cents per gallon...
Environmental and climate justice groups celebrate a “huge win” to make polluters pay to clean up idle oil wells and to continue holding refiners accountable for price gouging
Sacramento, Calif....
Los Angeles, CA—The state’s oil and gas regulator CalGEM has gone rogue, approving hundreds of oil permits this year in vulnerable communities breathing poisonous emissions from both active and...
Los Angeles, CA - As new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows Californians pay $1.86 more per gallon than US drivers for gasoline, the state’s new oil market monitor has issued...
Los Angeles, CA —Fifty-five organizations have sent a letter to Governor Newsom urging him to veto SB 842 (Bradford), legislation that would make it more cumbersome to assess and control price spikes...
Sacramento, CA -- A bill amended 72 hours before the end of the legislative session and passed in the dead of night without debate would undermine California’s new gasoline...
Supreme Court Action Needed To Protect Hundreds Of Thousands Of Californians From Harm
Los Angeles, CA—Public interest groups filed amicus letters with the California Supreme Court seeking review of a...
Los Angeles, CA—The total number of oil drilling permits issued blew past 15,000 since Governor Newsom took office in 2019, while nearly all permits issued in the first six...
Los Angeles, CA—California gasoline prices have dropped significantly and stabilized relative to national gas prices in the wake of the Governor’s call, and enactment of, California’s anti-gouging law, according...
Los Angeles, CA— Consumer Watchdog has called upon the Governor’s Department of Finance to strike a $500,000 allocation in the legislative-approved budget for the San Francisco “Bottle Bank” mobile...
Los Angeles, CA—The San Francisco BottleBank bottle deposit return pilot featuring trucks rotating between supermarket parking lots has burned through over $3.6 million in state grants and services for...
SB 556 would have held oil companies presumptively liable for causing cancer, asthma, preterm and high risk births for people living within 3200 ft of an oil well.
Sacramento, CA...
SB 556 — legislation that gives people who live near oil wells and have developed cancer, respiratory illnesses and birth defects the right to hold oil drillers liable for their illnesses — passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee in a 8 to 2 vote. SB 556 will now be referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Los Angeles, CA— Consumer Watchdog released a report today outlining what CalRecycle, the state’s recycling regulator, should do beginning at its public workshop on April 25 to craft new...
New legislation gives people who have developed cancer, respiratory illnesses and birth defects the right to hold oil drillers liable for their illnesses if they live, work, or go to school within 3200 feet of oil drilling and if the company did not use the best technologies to mitigate risk.
In an appeal before the Court of Appeal in Sacramento to be heard on Monday, the Newsom Administration will be challenged over positions that breach a longstanding agreement to require all radioactive waste from the Santa Susana Field Lab be disposed of at sites licensed and designed for such waste.
The total number of oil drilling permits approved since Governor Gavin Newsom he took office reached nearly 15,000 in the first quarter of 2023, FracTracker Alliance and Consumer Watchdog said today.
Legislation backed by Governor Newsom to create a new state watchdog with power to prevent price gouging at the gas pump cleared the California Assembly by a vote of 52 to 19 and is now awaiting the Governor’s signature.
Sacramento, CA -- A landmark measure to rein in skyrocketing California gasoline prices has cleared the California Senate by a vote of 30 to 8. “This bill puts a watchdog...
SBx1 2, the newly amended proposal for a price gouging penalty and oil refiner transparency, passed its first test in the California Senate Utilities, Energy and Commerce Committee
Making California First State In America To Rein In Oil Refiner Greed and Profiteering
Los Angeles, CA – Governor Newsom and California legislature leaders have reached a deal to push through...
Top executives and insiders at California’s big five oil refiners cashed out $590 million in stock in 2022, according to a review of filings with Securities Exchange Commission by the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog.
Sacramento, CA – Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court will offer testimony in favor of enacting a price gouging penalty and windfall profits cap on oil refiners at the California Senate Energy,...
Labor, Working Families Party, progressive and climate justice organizations unite on bill to penalize future gasoline price gouging
Sacramento, CA — Over 100 state, local, and national organizations sent a letter calling on...
Los Angeles, CA—PBF Energy today posted an annual profit of $2.9 billion. The five refiners controlling California’s gasoline market -- PBF Energy, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Valero, and Phillips 66 –...
San Francisco, CA – Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court offered the following testimony to the Public Utilities Commission on the spike in natural gas prices in Southern California:
Something is...
Los Angeles, CA—Marathon Petroleum made 75 cents in profit per gallon off West Coast drivers in 2022, virtually doubling what it made the year before, strengthening the case for...
Total Windfall Profits Rebate Climbs to $3.2 Billion As Fourth Quarter Reports Continue To Roll In
Los Angeles, CA—Chevron’s profits report to investors Friday revealed it made 85 cents per...
Los Angeles, CA—Chevron reported earnings for the year of $35.5 billion, more than doubling last year's $15.6 billion, with financial data revealing the company also doubled its per gallon profits...
Los Angeles, CA—Valero raked in $11.5 billion in 2022 profits, beating its $930 million for the previous year by a dozen times. However, Governor Newsom’s call for a special...
Los Angeles, CA—80 environmental and public health advocacy groups have sent a letter of support to Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), author of legislation setting a price gouging penalty on...
Points to Evidence Utility Colluded with Parent Company Sempra To Drive Up Price On Customers
Consumer Watchdog wrote Attorney General Rob Bonta and Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto...
Los Angeles, CA—The state Oil & Gas Supervisor at the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) has been relieved of his job against the backdrop of a 745% uptick...
Watchdog Makes Case For Windfall Profits Cap
Sacramento, CA -- California’s four big oil refiners more than doubled their average profit of the last 20 years from California during the...
Sacramento, CA — Leading consumer groups have written Governor Newsom to offer support for his plan to impose a windfall profits cap and price gouging penalty on oil refiners when their...
More than six in ten California voters support a proposal to impose a windfall profits cap and price gouging rebate on oil refiners for the abnormally higher gas prices...
Los Angeles, CA— A review of California’s five big oil refiners’ investor reports from the second quarter shows unprecedented, windfall profits that top $1 per gallon. Consumer Watchdog reported that the...
More than six in ten California voters support a proposal to impose a windfall profits cap and price gouging rebate on oil refiners for the abnormally higher gas prices...
Los Angeles, CA—As a ban on permit approvals for oil drilling near vulnerable communities looms on January 1, oil drillers seeking to overturn the ban have received 86 permits...
With California’s five big oil refiner third quarter profits reports complete, a Consumer Watchdog review shows that four of the five together posted 30% higher profits per gallon from gasoline sold on the West Coast than anywhere else in the nation or world.
Los Angeles, CA—Oil refiner Phillips 66 posted 3rd quarter refining profits of $2.8 billion, accounting for more than half of its total quarterly profits of $5.3 billion. Its total corporate...
Los Angeles, CA—Chevron posted refining profits of $2.5 billion dollars in the third quarter, almost doubling their haul from the same quarter the year before. Half that amount came solely...
Los Angeles, CA— California’s third biggest oil refiner made a whopping $2.26 billion off refining gasoline, tripling its profit in the third quarter, after excluding special items.
PBF reported making...
Los Angeles, CA—Valero’s net income hit $2.8 billion for the third quarter of 2022, more than quintupling the $463 million reported for the same quarter last year.
Valero’s Western region...
Los Angeles, CA -- A review of oil refiner shareholder reports shows California oil refiners made an average of 32 cents per gallon annually from 2001 – 2021 compared...
Los Angeles, CA—Fifty environmental and public interest groups wrote legislative leaders to back Governor Gavin Newsom’s call for a special legislative session to establish a cap on record California...
Los Angeles, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today applauded Governor Newsom for calling a special session of the legislature to deal with price gouging at the gas pump and endorsing...
Los Angeles, CA — Pointing to windfall profits reported by California oil refiners to their investors, Consumer Watchdog issued a report showing that a windfall profits tax is needed...
Los Angeles, CA — A landmark new package of laws expanding and reforming the broken bottle deposit system could increase consumer access to bottle deposit refunds if the rules...
Los Angeles, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today asked California Governor Gavin Newsom to call a special session of the California legislature to address the unprecedented, nearly $2 per gallon...
Los Angeles, CA — California Governor Gavin Newsom took action to uncover why Californians are paying so much for their gasoline when he signed legislation today requiring oil refiners...
Los Angeles, CA — California’s gas prices at the pump are rising yet again just as gas prices are falling everywhere else, and the time has come to find...
Los Angeles, CA - A bill requiring oil refiners to disclose their per gallon profits monthly is now on Governor Newsom's desk, having passed out of the California Senate...
Los Angeles, CA -- A bill requiring oil refiners to disclose their per gallon profits monthly passed out of the California Assembly by a vote of 42 - 23. ...
Los Angeles, CA — SB 1013 (Atkins), a bill expanding the bottle deposit system to include wine and distilled spirits, is also loaded with pork for major corporations that...
Los Angeles, CA -- With two weeks left in the legislative session, Consumer Watchdog today urged Governor Newsom to reform a hopelessly shattered bottle deposit system via a budget...
Los Angeles, CA— A review of California’s five big oil refiners’ investor reports from the second quarter shows unprecedented, windfall profits that top $1 per gallon.
Consumer Watchdog reported that the...
