Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air – How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science
<p class="source">Union of Concerned Scientists</p>
Energy
Energy and utility watchdog coverage — gas prices, oil-industry profits, utility rates, and clean-energy accountability.
State’s gasoline jumps 8.6 cents;
<h3>California's average is almost 36 cents higher year over year. Refinery problems are blamed.</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>The gap between the California average and the national average was 41 cents a gallon Monday, a fact one consumer group attributed to price gouging and a deliberate effort to keep supply tight. "California's price spike in February, nearly the lowest consumption period of the year, is setting up the state to smash last year's $3.38-a-gallon record," said Judy Dugan, research director for the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights. "Lawmakers will be guilty of political malpractice if they ignore this blatant profiteering."</p>
Exxon in Sheep’s Clothing
<p class="source">TheHill.com</p>
<p>What's up with oil industry advertising? In full-page ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers and magazines, Exxon, Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute soberly explain their positions on "climate change" (Exxon), the inextricably global nature of the oil business (Chevron) and why the oil industry's bloated profits are just average (API). These are messages aimed not at the average motorist, but at Congress and regulators.</p>
Climate Change Futures Report: Health, Ecological & Economic Dimensions
<p class="source">Center for Health & The Global Environment - Harvard Medical School</p>
CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: Primary move – No limits on cynicism
<p class="source">Contra Costa Times (California)</p>
<p>"Really, what we're looking at is two powerful politicians looking to extend their stay in office." -- Carmen Balber, for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, on an initiative to change terms limits that could result in extending the terms of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.</p>
NRDC ExxonMobil Internal Memo on Global Climate Science
<p class="source">NRDC</p>
Termed out? Maybe not;
<h3>MEASURE'S APPROVAL COULD KEEP PERATA AND NÚÑEZ IN POWER</h3><p class="source">The San Jose Mercury News (California)</p>
<p>Critics say that legislators are using an early presidential primary as a pretext for an early vote on term limits. If the initiative passed in February 2008, it would allow Perata and Nuñez to retain their seats. If it's delayed until June, it will be too late; they already will have been termed out. "Really, what we're looking at,'' said Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, "is two powerful politicians looking to extend their stay in office.''</p>
Big Oil Shifts To Greener Rhetoric But Investment Still Lags
<p class="source">Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>Big Oil's embrace of the environmental debate has drawn jeers from some quarters. "Big Oil CEO's are meeting in Houston this week to develop a message on making their energy look better -- greener and more committed to energy efficiency," said the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, headlined "Big Oil's Hot Air in Houston." "But their underlying business strategy hasn't changed a bit."</p>
Topics shift to the environment as oil executives meet in Texas;
<h3>'It really reflects how the times change,' says Daniel Yergin, whose group is the sponsor.</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>All the talk of ethanol, biofuels and climate change represented a striking departure from the hot topics that have coursed through this energy conference over the last 25 years. But oil industry critics at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights weren't impressed. "Big Oil CEOs are meeting in Houston this week to develop a message on making their industry look better -- greener and more committed to energy efficiency. But their underlying business strategy hasn't changed a bit," the Santa Monica-based consumer group said in a Tuesday statement.</p>
Big Oil cautious about clean-energy spending;
<h3>Critics want more from firms earning billions</h3><p class="source">The San Francisco Chronicle</p>
<p>For BP and other oil companies reaping record profits, research on new energy sources is far from their biggest investment. BP's earnings hit $22 billion in 2006. The company spent $15.5 billion during the year buying back its own stock, almost twice what it may spend on renewable power and alternative fuels in a decade. Many renewable-energy advocates say that, for now, oil company commitment to alternative energy remains relatively small.</p>
Chevron reports record profit;
<h3>$17.14 billion for the San Ramon oil giant in 2006 helped by lower commodity prices</h3><p class="source">The San Francisco Chronicle</p>
<p>Consumer advocates said the company's record year came at the expense of motorists in California, where Chevron is the state's largest refiner. Chevron "is not only forcing soccer moms and truckers to feel a lot of pain, but pinching the economy -- from restaurant owners who are paying more for deliveries to diners who pay more for food,'' said Jamie Court of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica.</p>
Gas prices lower, but predicted to increase;
<h3>Changing of blends likely to cause spike</h3><p class="source">The San Diego Union-Tribune</p>
<p>The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica, meanwhile, alleged that politics played a role in the lower gasoline prices seen since the latter part of last year. The foundation noted that refining profits fell sharply for Exxon Mobil and Chevron in the fourth quarter, saying that the companies sought to hold down prices to defuse high gasoline costs as an election issue.</p>