Energy

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><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>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."</p>

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

November 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Contra Costa Times (California)</p> <p>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.</p>

Opponents ask UC regents to delay signing BP contract

November 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">San Francisco Chronicle</p> <p>"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.</p>

Record sales boost ExxonMobil despite 10% decline in quarterly earnings

November 2, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>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.</p>

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><p class="source">The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)</p> <p>"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.</p>

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><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>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.</p>

Refinery margins have been an ally at the gas pump

October 20, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The Kansas City Star (Missouri)</p> <p>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."</p>

Oil prices soar — but why?

October 18, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)</p> <p>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!"</p>

Two Faces on the Car Tax

October 17, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<font face="Verdana,helvetica,Arial"></font><!-- body text starts --><!-- startbodytext --> <font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">Just because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law AB118, an oil-friendly bill disguised as...</font>

Shell sees biofuel in future

October 17, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The Oakland Tribune (California)</p> <p>Hofmeister acknowledged that the price charged by oil companies such as Shell to retailers would ultimately figure into the price paid by consumers. Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said gasoline costs are high in part because oil companies withhold supply from the market to drive prices up.</p>

Fat Wallets Win Again

October 15, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">A rumor briefly swirled yesterday that Gov. Schwarzenegger would veto a deceptive "biofuel development" bill pushed with the full force of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. That...</font>

Chevron Teaches Big Brands What Not to Do

October 15, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">AdWeek Magazine</p> <p>Jamie Court on the Huffingon Post, wrote, "Chevron's latest advertising campaign is a classic study in how large rogue corporations try to show themselves as having a soul and human meaning." Not surprisingly, the environmental activist crowd had a field day. A column in The Daily KOS (with 600,000 visitors a day) took the opportunity -- while bashing the Chevron ads -- to remind people of the anti-SUV messages secreted in the user-generated ads for the Chevy Tahoe and share some of those videos, which the oil and auto companies no doubt wish would just go away.</p>