Energy

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

Shell sees biofuel in future

October 17, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Oakland Tribune (California) 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.

Fat Wallets Win Again

October 15, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

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...

Chevron Teaches Big Brands What Not to Do

October 15, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

AdWeek Magazine 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.

Assembly speaker lives with fundraiser in LA penthouse

October 12, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Associated Press Jamie Court of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based advocacy group, said Núñez's independence could be jeopardized because of his roommate's ties to corporations, unions and other contributors that finance the speaker's political ventures. "It's outrageous," Court said. "If you are living with the point person for every major donor in the state, your so-called residence really turns into a back-room meeting place."

Assembly leader hit for lavish spending

October 6, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

San Jose Mercury News (California) "Even if it's all legitimate public business, following the letter of the law, he's clearly enriching himself by flying around the world with special interest lobbyist money," said Jamie Court, founder of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "And every time he takes a step toward helping the industry, the connections become more apparent. The real issue is: How does this type of lavish living on his contributors' credit cards affect the health care debate? He's clearly living high on his contributors' dime. Yet, he claims he's for the people."

Retail dealers once opposed ‘hot fuel,’ but now they fight to keep it

October 6, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Kansas City Star It's a striking case of wanting it both ways, said Judy Dugan, research director for The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, in Santa Monica, Calif. What was fair for the dealers should be fair for consumers, Dugan said. "The only people denied fairness are motorists buying fuel in the U.S.," she said.

Protesters see deal with BP as Big Oil’s Trojan horse for Cal

October 5, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "UC Berkeley is becoming an extension campus of Big Oil U," John Simpson of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said at the protest. Most of the demonstrators, wearing "I didn't enroll in UC-BP" T-shirts, appeared to be UC students. They say the university's research agenda is being set by corporate interests.

Consumer Group Blasts Chevron’s New Ad Campaign

October 2, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

CSNews.com After the debut of Chevron's $15 million "Power of Human Energy" ad campaign -- which aims at engaging discussion on energy issues and launched on a two-and-a-half minute spot on CBS' 60 Minutes -- the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) lambasted the company, calling its efforts a "gauzy, Hollywood-slick" way for a strategy to keep profits high while rejecting a commitment to the future of renewable energy, the organization stated.

Stanford University on Boston Legal

September 27, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

San Jose Mercury News (California) "I don't know what the people at Stanford would be thinking about it, but I think it's wonderful that one of the premiere vehicles of popular culture clearly understands the serious issues at stake when you're talking about corporate financing of universities," said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica.

ANALYSIS REVEALS PHONE INDUSTRY’S POLITICAL CONNECTIONS

September 16, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Daily News of Los Angeles "It's a testament to the cell-phone industry's power that the first thing Arnold Schwarzenegger did when he came into office was put people on the Public Utilities Commission who were pro-industry, anti-consumer, and immediately proceeded to tear down pro-consumer regulations that prevented cell-phone company abuses,'' said longtime consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield, author of Proposition 103, which significantly reduced insurance rates for California motorists.

Arnold Won’t Come Clean

September 7, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6825057?nclick_check=1">The San Jose Mercury News is reporting</a> that Governor Schwarzenegger has refused a State Senator's request for documents that could reveal that the administration...

Another form of price deception at the gas pump

September 6, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Ventura County Star (California) ExxonMobil also has no plans to do anything about this, except print stickers. "They acknowledge through these stickers that this is a rip-off," says Jamie Court, president of the California-based Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights. "It's like a grocery store posting warnings that a produce scale is broken -- but you've got to use it anyway."