Energy

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

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."

Ariz drivers losing gas at the pump when they fill up in summer

August 31, 2007 · Judy Dugan

Associated Press The state Department of Weights and Measures is taking fuel temperatures at gasoline stations and considering voluntary temperature compensation after reports that drivers filling up their tanks are losing some gas to evaporation in the summer heat. "Arizona is the epicenter of hot-fuel rip-offs," said Judy Dugan, a founder of <a href="http://www.oilwatchdog.org">OilWatchdog.org</a>, which is calling for stations to compensate for the temperature of gasoline they sell.

Refiners’ profit streak could fade

August 31, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Houston Chronicle (Texas) The big profits prompted backlash from consumers and politicians who charged the industry with manipulating the market for its own gain. "These increases have happened quarter after quarter since Hurricane Katrina, giving U.S. drivers higher-than-hurricane prices without a natural disaster," said Judy Dugan, research director of Santa Monica, Calif.-based consumer group Oilwatch.org, in a report last month. Dugan and other industry critics have called for investigations of this year's refinery outages and for stronger government oversight of refinery maintenance and production.

NOT GETTING WHAT YOU PAY FOR AT THE PUMP;

August 31, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<h3>ARIZ. SHORTCHANGED BY THE HEAT; ACTIVISTS PURSUE FAIRER FILL-UPS</h3>The Arizona Republic (Phoenix) "Arizona is the epicenter of hot-fuel rip-offs," said Judy Dugan, a founder of OilWatchdog.org, which is calling for gas stations to compensate for the temperature of gas they sell. "With the weather Phoenix is experiencing now, every time you fill the tank, you could be losing a dime a gallon. It's an extra penalty for living in the desert imposed on you by the oil companies and oil refineries."

Tempers flare at hot fuel meeting in Chicago

August 30, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Kansas City Star The committee's positive technical findings, however, were soon overshadowed by a furious response from industry representatives in the audience, who outnumbered the five committee members three-to-one. "It's a hijacking of the meeting," Judy Dugan, research director for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, told those attending the meeting.

California group offers free stickers of displeasure on hot fuel

August 25, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The Kansas City Star (Missouri) Judy Dugan, the foundation's research director, said the group wanted a sticker that was larger and more direct than the ones being used by ExxonMobil Corp. or Tesoro Corp., which began pasting their stickers on pumps earlier this summer. The foundation's sticker is intended to not only raise consumer awareness of hot fuel but also point to a cure.

Clueless Mary Nichols

August 20, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

When Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed former California Air Resources Board director Mary Nichols last month to head the same agency in his administration, reaction in the enviro world was mostly...

Letter to CA Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez Re: asking him to back up his tough talk on reigning in Big Oil

August 16, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Biofuels Go Live in CA?

August 16, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, CEO of LiveFuels Inc., was one of the first contributors to Schwarzenegger's recall campaign, as well as being the head of <a href="http://www.amendforarnold.org/">A...</a>

Gasoline prices all over the map:

August 16, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

<h3>18 percent fall in gas price over past 3 months giving motorists a break</h3>The San Diego Union-Tribune (California) Charles Langley, who oversees gasoline monitoring at UCAN, said dealers have little leverage in cutting deals for their fuel from major oil companies. "The only thing that sets the price of gasoline -- outside of oil prices -- is the refinery pricing manager," he said. Or as Judy Dugan, research director for <a href="http://www.oilwatchdog.org">OilWatchdog.org</a>, put it: "They charge what the market will bear in a particular area because they can do it. No one is going to stop them."

Exxon Criticized for Pump Labels

August 13, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

CSNews.com Calling it a "motor fuel measurement notice," ExxonMobil affixed labels to numerous Mobil and Exxon stations in California altering customers that the energy content of a gallon of fuel varies with its temperature, a move that the consumer group Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) called acknowledgement of shortchanging consumers in a written statement.

ExxonMobil using tiny stickers to cool disparity over hot fuel

August 10, 2007 · Consumer Watchdog

The San Francisco Chronicle "The only way to fix the hot-fuel problem is not with a sticker that's so small that you need reading glasses to read it, it's by selling fuel fairly," said Judy Dugan, research director for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.