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Watchdog Warns of Continued Gasoline Price Spikes Without Promised Energy Commission Rules

Energy

Energy and utility watchdog coverage — gas prices, oil-industry profits, utility rates, and clean-energy accountability.

Was Sen. Rubio Auditioning For Job at Chevron?

February 25, 2013 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2603" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/chevwrong.png" style="width: 300px; height: 340px; float: right; " width="397" height="450" />The power of the petroleum industry in California may be unparalleled in the states. Its lobbying machine is stupendously successful. For instance, California remains the only significant oil producer that <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/blog/gov-brown-why-no-oil-tax">does not tax </a>oil extracted in the state.

Senator Quits For Job With Chevron

February 23, 2013 · Mark Reback

State lawmaker Rubio had led a push for business-friendly environmental rules. SACRAMENTO, CA -- State Sen. Michael J. Rubio, who was leading the Legislature's effort to make California's environmental laws more business-friendly, abruptly resigned from office Friday to accept a government-affairs job with Chevron Corp.

If the President Wants Cleaner, Safer Gas and Oil, Give Consumers Knowledge and Power

February 13, 2013 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2595" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fracking_holding_pond.png" style="width: 280px; height: 206px; margin: 10px; float: right; " width="358" height="264" />It was a relief to hear more than a passing reference to climate change in President Obama's State of the Union Speech, including promises of more support for wind and solar power. But the oil industry heard nothing to even cause even a smidgen of concern.

Fracking Regulations Only Exxon Could Love

January 29, 2013 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2261" alt="" height="219" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/images_fracking_waste_pit.png" style="float: right;" width="289" />California's oil and gas industry regulators are about to write final state regulations on the controversial practice of fracking natural gas and oil wells in the state. Don't expect any backbone, however, from the state Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Regulation.

Which Way To Ease Gas Price Spikes?

January 13, 2013 · Mark Reback

Require More Inventory At Oil Refineries, Watchdog Says

California Gas Prices: A Rigged Game Where Consumers Lose Big

December 13, 2012 · Liza Tucker

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2550" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images_gasprices_0.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 245px; float: right;" width="512" height="501" />Who would want two companies, Tesoro and Chevron, to control more than half of California's gasoline market? Only people, like oil company executives, who think paying five dollars a gallon should be the new normal.

Energy Price Manipulation Found On Two Fronts

November 29, 2012 · Consumer Watchdog

Anyone who thought manipulation of California energy prices ended with the criminal penalties assessed against executives of companies like Enron and Williams Energy after the state's 2000-2001 electricity crunch turns out to have been hopelessly naive.

Senators Add Fire to Scandal Over Phony California Fuel Crisis

November 27, 2012 · Liza Tucker

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2046" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/oilrefinery.png" style="width: 300px; height: 214px; float: right;" width="300" height="214" />Today, senators from California, Washington and Oregon joined our call to investigate refineries, asking the Department of Justice to comb through California refineries one by one to see whether market manipulation or false reporting by oil refineries had something to do with record $5 dollar a gallon prices at some California gas stations last month and near record prices earlier in the year.

Gas-Price Increases Questioned

November 18, 2012 · Mark Reback

A new report calls into question gasoline price spikes in California this year, arguing costs outpaced the traditional supply-and-demand model and insinuating market manipulation on the part of oil refineries.

Consumer Advocates Say Refineries May Have Falsified Information

November 17, 2012 · Jamie Court

Consumer Watchdog, saying that refineries operating in the state may have falsified information to help boost gasoline prices, wants the California attorney general to launch a criminal investigation. The advocacy group made its request in a letter to state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris. “It appears that California’s oil refineries falsified public information to drive up the price of gasoline," Consumer Watchdog’s president, Jamie Court, and energy project director, Liza Tucker, said in the letter.

Export, Baby, Export: And Keep Gas Prices Up

November 9, 2012 · Liza Tucker

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2526" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images_keystonepipeline.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 127px; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px; float: right; " width="639" height="407" />As gas prices spiked in California last month to blow past even Hawaii’s highest-in-the-nation, the state’s refineries were exporting gas. That’s right, exporting, just like the rest of the nation’s refineries. According to the Energy Department, we are now net exporters of fuel for the first time since 1949.

U.S. Fuel Exports Grow To Historic Levels

November 7, 2012 · Mark Reback

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-9912" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images_950_0.jpg" style="width: 187px; height: 353px; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px; float: right;" width="187" height="353" />If you're wondering what happened to cheap U.S. fuel, look to Mexico, Canada and even OPEC member Venezuela. U.S. refiners are selling diesel and gasoline to those and other countries at historically high levels, making the nation a net exporter of fuel for the first time since 1949, according to the Energy Department.