Energy

Tempers flare at hot fuel meeting in Chicago

August 30, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

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

California group offers free stickers of displeasure on hot fuel

August 25, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

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

Clueless Mary Nichols

August 20, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">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...</font>

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

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Biofuels Go Live in CA?

August 16, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">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> </font>

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><p class="source">The San Diego Union-Tribune (California)</p> <p>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."</p>

Exxon Criticized for Pump Labels

August 13, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">CSNews.com</p> <p>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.</p>

ExxonMobil using tiny stickers to cool disparity over hot fuel

August 10, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

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

Activist Uses ‘Insensitive’ Ad to Highlight Intel’s Support for a Ballot Initiative to Amend California’s Class Action Laws

August 8, 2007  ·  Jamie Court

Consumer activist Jamie Court, with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, is circulating an advertisement that Intel Corp. has apologized for not once, but twice, in order to call attention to Intel's involvement in a bid to amend California's class action law through the ballot box.

Senate to consider ‘hot fuel’ fix;

August 6, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>McCaskill proposal on hot fuel would require dispensers to adjust volume for effects of temperature</h3><p class="source">The Kansas City Star</p> <p>The legislation is being supported by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, the Consumer Federation of American, Consumers Union, and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups. "This (legislation) means hot fuel has gone national," said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica, Calif. "This is a very, very important step forward."</p>

Chevron’s profit soars in quarter

July 30, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (California) </p> <p>Consumer advocates have long suspected oil companies of manipulating prices, and this spring was no exception. The price spike was caused by mechanical problems at gasoline refineries -- not by an increase in the cost of crude oil -- and advocates questioned whether the oil companies weren't deliberately cutting supplies to increase the price, perhaps by extending repairs at the refineries. "You can't justify gasoline prices with oil prices, at least not in the second quarter," said Judy Dugan with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "American drivers are disproportionately paying at the pump to boost corporate bottom lines."</p>

Chevron profit hits $5.4 billion

July 28, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>Oil company critic Judy Dugan was quick to condemn the higher refining profits. "Chevron and the other major oil companies profited greatly from failure: long outages at refineries, aging equipment and lack of new capacity," said Dugan, research director at the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. Chevron, she added, "boosted profit to a new record as consumers paid outrageous prices at the pump."</p>