Energy

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

$4.00 Gas: It’s Not Just the Oil Price

April 12, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-2046" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/oilrefinery.png" style="width: 250px; height: 178px;" width="300" height="214" />Oil companies are making a fortune off of drivers with oil at $109 a barrel (which comes to $2.60 a gallon at 42 gallons per barrel). But they’re getting rich a second time refining the oil into gasoline.

Gas Prices Keep Soaring As U.S. Fuels Other Countries’ Growth

April 9, 2011 · Mark Reback

Petersburg, VA -- How high will they go? Gasoline prices, already too high for most people's liking a month ago, have continued to soar and seem to be closing in inexorably on their record high above $4 a gallon. And while most petroleum market-watchers remain convinced that political upheaval in the Middle East and ensuing speculation on the commodities markets are behind the price increase, evidence suggests that there may be another cause that's even less likely to go away anytime soon.

$4.00 Gasoline: Let’s Bet Against the Future

April 5, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-2041" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/thumb_3.png" style="width: 300px; height: 214px;" width="300" height="214" />Monday’s jump in oil prices to more than $108 a barrel, with the price of gasoline above $3.66 a gallon for regular ($4.06 in California), triggered a flood of news stories. But the dry, just-the-facts lead of the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-04/crude-gasoline-heating-oil-extend-2-year-highs-oil-products.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg story</a> caught my eye because one prediction driving speculation will crumble if the speculators win:

Car Perk Will Get Scrutiny

April 4, 2011 · Mark Reback

California is the only state that provides lawmakers with a car, gas and maintenance paid largely by taxpayers. The perk has withstood the recessionary economy and several rounds of budget-cutting, including $11.2 billion in measures the Legislature approved and Gov. Jerry Brown signed in March.

As Japan Fears Catastrophe, U.S. Energy Chief Says ‘Don’t Worry’

March 16, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-2014" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/japanreactor.png" style="width: 270px; height: 150px;" width="540" height="300" />The news about Japan’s nuclear crisis <a href="http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8224470">gets worse</a> with each dribble of information from a reluctant bureaucracy. The chief risk Wednesday was that spent nuclear fuel rods in enormous storage pools would boil away the water that shields them, setting the waste on fire to spew highly radioactive particles into the wind.

Refiners Licking Their Chops Over Japan

March 15, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-2010" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/japanfire.png" style="width: 270px; height: 150px;" width="540" height="300" />With perhaps ten thousand lives lost and a nuclear reactor emergency growing daily in Japan, one industry is poised to reap huge profits from tragedy. The stocks of oil refiners <a href="http://www.tickerspy.com/newswire/?p=4174">charged upward </a>today on bets that Japan would soon have to import a lot more heating oil and gasoline because of refinery fires and quake/tsunami damage.

Japan’s Nukes and Refineries: What’s Going Untold

March 12, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-2008" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/smokeplume.png" style="width: 250px; height: 178px; " width="300" height="214" />Japan’s struggle to avoid full-on meltdown at nuclear reactors that lost cooling power after the quake. The shutdown of major Japanese oil refineries. Both raise questions that scream for answers about corporate and government behavior.

Absolute Gasoline Price Record in 2011?

March 10, 2011 · Judy Dugan

Five Actions to Cut Gasoline Prices

March 9, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-1994" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/gaspumpcomic.png" style="width: 250px; height: 178px; " width="300" height="214" />An uprising in Libya is not causing your wallet to bleed at the gas pump. The U.S. buys virtually no oil from Libya. Egypt and Tunisia, the other hotspots, don’t even produce oil. There’s still a surplus of oil on world markets, more than enough to make up for any shortage from Libya.

Facts of Life on High Gas Prices: It’s the Speculators & Oil Companies to Blame, Not Middle East

March 8, 2011 · Jamie Court

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Progressives-Guide-Raising-Hell-Grassroots/dp/1603582932"><img class=" size-full wp-image-1992" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/raisinghellcover.gif" style="width: 158px; height: 250px;" width="158" height="250" /></a>While skirmishes in Libya and uncertainty in the Middle East are nice cover for outrageous gasoline prices, the fact is the same old suspects are making a killing from sky-high gas prices approaching $4 dollars per gallon in California: big oil companies and greedy speculators.

Fracking Congress Finally Wakes to Natgas Danger

March 1, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-1986" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/fracking.png" style="width: 250px; height: 178px;" width="300" height="214" />Congress–or at least a few Democrats in Congress–are at last investigating the explosive and toxic dangers of deep drilling for natural gas–the newest, hottest fad in the oil and gas industry. From The Hill’s <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/146491-top-house-democrats-launch-investigation-into-fracking-on-public-lands">energy and environment blog</a>:

Glenn Beck Is Raising Your Gasoline Prices

March 1, 2011 · Judy Dugan

<img class=" size-full wp-image-1984" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/thumb_1.png" style="width: 200px; height: 143px;" width="300" height="214" />OK, it’s not all Glenn Beck’s Fault that you’re paying $3.40 or $3.70 or even $4.00 a gallon at the pump. But his fear-based take on democracy movements in the Middle East (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/glenn-beck-egypt-caliphate-conspiracy-theory_n_818564.html">oh, the caliphate!</a>) gives cover to the speculative traders who jack up oil and gasoline prices without a trace of supply and demand reason.