Latest Energy Releases

Californians have paid $7.5 billion more than they should have for their gasoline since California’s record gasoline price spike began in February of 2015, according to a Consumer Watchdog analysis of state and federal data. That amounts to $314 per California driver. The number takes into account California’s higher...

In the six months since California’s record gasoline price spike began in February, Californians have paid $4.8 billion more than the rest of the country for regular gasoline at the pump, according to a Consumer Watchdog analysis of state and federal data. That amounts to over $200 extra for...

This analysis, “Refining Profits,” looks at how oil refiners in California fared over the last decade in their refining operaDons and compared the companies’ refining profits during periods of gasoline price spikes. For this report, Consumer Watchdog analyzed public company data filed with the SecuriDes and Exchange Commission (SEC)...

Californians have perennially experienced steep gasoline price spikes since 1999 when California’s Attorney General formed a Gasoline Pricing Taskforce that identified market consolidation and limited inventories as causes of prices spikes. Consumer Watchdog’s president Jamie Court represented the California Assembly on that taskforce along with leading industry and government...

Internal documents obtained from the oil industry’s lobbying arm, the Western States Petroleum Association, show that the companies have made stopping California’s landmark climate change laws their top priority and will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. This includes the use of a platoon of phony front groups...

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has been a historically troubled agency, far too often failing to effectively fulfill its mission of protecting the public from toxic harm. Our prior report, Golden Wasteland, documented case after case of DTSC simply failing to do its job. Numerous news pieces,...

Purchase of BP’s big refinery in Carson complies with anti-trust laws means over time gas prices will go up in the state

California’s drivers and the state economy will pay the price for this merger at the pump. We ask you to halt it on antitrust grounds.

California produces more than four billion pounds of hazardous waste every year. That’s enough to fill 727 Olympic-sized pools. At least one hundred thousand businesses, from aerospace, computer, and chemical companies, to metal shredders, gas stations, plating companies, and dry cleaners, contribute to this toxic stream. It has to go somewhere. Read...

A review of profit, shareholder and government reports from the last decade show that Valero reaped extraordinary profits from its refining operations in the Golden State, while drivers emptied their wallets to fund this refiner bonanza.  Read the report here.

This handbook offers solutions for the most visible and perva- sive sector of the current oil/environmental crisis: transportation by automobile. Americans travel more than 3.5 trillion vehicle miles per year1 (not even including occa- sional long-distance drives). They face often-staggering gasoline costs and emit millions of tons of pollutants....

Diesel fuel is the engine of American commerce and public life. Oil companies, by manipulat- ing supply, put sugar in the tank of a whole economy this spring. The companies and their refiners produced less diesel, imported less diesel and exported far more diesel than in previous years. This...

Crude oil prices, gasoline prices, and consumer protection Read the report here.

The oil industry is reporting second-quarter profits this week, and has signaled that refining profits will again be at record or near-record levels. Two consecutive years of soaring prices in spring and summer have equaled the price effects of Hurricane Katrina without any natural disas- ter.  Read the report here.

How deregulation let the energy industry steal billions from Californians. Read the report here.