Energy

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

BP inks $500M research deal with UC-Berkeley

November 15, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Greenwire A California-based watchdog group, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, criticized the agreement. "BP researchers will be able to suck up the best of what Berkeley's scientists have to offer, retreat behind locked, guarded doors and pursue their corporate agenda without giving anything back," the foundation's John Simpson said. "Academic research is based on an exchange of ideas and information. This is a one-way street benefiting only BP."

CRUDE PRIMED TO HIT CENTURY MARK

November 8, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The New York Post Wholesale gasoline hit a high of $2.435 a gallon, up 5.39 cents -- totaling a 20-cent a gallon wholesale rise in the last week. Gas could soon fetch $4 a gallon at pumps in New York and California, said the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

Chevron fails to cash in on high oil prices;

November 3, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Third-quarter profit takes a 26% hit. The firm blames sharply lower profit margins on the West Coast.</h3>Los Angeles Times "No one outside of Wall Street can weep for Chevron or any of the other major oil companies," said Judy Dugan, research director at Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights. "The outlandish profits of recent years, almost entirely on the backs of motorists, allowed them to ignore the long-term sustainability of their core business." Dugan said that investments in renewable energy projects by Chevron and others were dwarfed by what they spent buying back company stock. Chevron, which recently completed three $5-billion share-buyback campaigns, launched a $15-billion share repurchase program in September.

Energy firm to pay $15,000 fine for elections violation;

November 3, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<h3>The action stems from efforts to defeat a ballot measure seeking to tax crude-oil production.</h3>Los Angeles Times Judy Dugan of the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights characterized the violation as "very serious." "The public has a right to know who is supporting and opposing a ballot measure," she said Friday. "In any election, that amount of money can change the outcome."

Chevron hits snag, posts dip in profit: Company says high crude prices cut into third-quarter earnings

November 3, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Contra Costa Times (California) Despite the profit erosion, a consumer group claimed Chevron remains a remarkable profit machine. The Foundation for Taxpayers & Consumer Rights said Chevron is still on pace to vault to a record annual profit. "No one outside Wall Street can weep for Chevron or any of the other major oil companies," said Judy Dugan, the consumer group's research director.

Opponents ask UC regents to delay signing BP contract

November 3, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

San Francisco Chronicle "The prospect of giant carbon polluters directing research related to and gaining control of key energy technologies is very troubling -- especially when the research is conducted at, and the technologies are developed in collaboration with, public institutions," said the letter to UC President Robert Dynes and UC regents Chair Richard Blum. Joining Greenpeace in signing the letter were Essential Action of Washington, and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights of Santa Monica.

Record sales boost ExxonMobil despite 10% decline in quarterly earnings

November 2, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Los Angeles Times Consumer advocates were unsympathetic, noting that even with the pullback, ExxonMobil made more in three months than it did in the first nine months of 2002, the last down year before company profit took off. "Exxon has led the pack in setting a 'new normal' for its profits, which ultimately come out of the budgets of carpooling moms and pensioners struggling to buy home heating oil," said Judy Dugan, research director at the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

NO FALL BREAK: NEAR-RECORD OIL PRICES WIPE OUT THE USUAL AUTUMN DROP IN FUEL COSTS;

October 31, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<h3>BUSINESSES PASS ALONG INCREASE</h3>The Arizona Republic (Phoenix) "Speculators in largely unregulated futures markets are using any excuse, from bad weather in Mexico to a dip in U.S. oil supplies, to drive crude oil toward $100," said Judy Dugan, research director of Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and its OilWatchdog.org project. She said the number of $100 call options for December oil, essentially wagers that oil will cost more than $100 a barrel by then, allowing option-holders to buy at that price and sell for a profit, show that "gamblers" are driving the market. FTCR wants more regulation of energy trading and supply.

Gasoline prices follow oil upward;

October 30, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Crude futures hit new highs. The weak dollar, stormy weather in the Gulf of Mexico and other factors are cited.</h3>Los Angeles Times Oil market critics took the system to task for ratcheting up the worst-case-scenario fear premium at the expense of consumers. "Speculation is largely to blame. The victims, as usual, are ordinary motorists and people using petroleum products to heat their homes as winter approaches," said Judy Dugan, research director of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

Refinery margins have been an ally at the gas pump

October 20, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Kansas City Star (Missouri) Industry critics say that refinery capacity over the years has not kept up with demand, and that gives oil companies the power to profit even more handsomely when demand rises. "Those record prices in the spring weren't tied to the price of crude oil," said Judy Dugan, research director for The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights. "The key factor is what amount of refining profit the oil companies are willing to seek and for what reasons."

Oil prices soar — but why?

October 18, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota) Oil industry critics say that refiner manipulation is to blame. "These companies control the maintenance, the output, the expansions. There is a lot of limitation (in generating supplies) that is deliberate in refineries, and they were able to drive up profits to levels that were close to a dollar a gallon for finished gasoline" earlier this year, said Judy Dugan, research director for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Los Angeles, a consumer group that clashes frequently with Big Oil. "Americans will pay $3 a gallon for gasoline, but if they were getting the margins they were getting this spring, gas would be over $4 a gallon, and you'd see people bring torches to the Capitol!"

Two Faces on the Car Tax

October 17, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Just because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law AB118, an oil-friendly bill disguised as...