Elizabeth Edwards

Steyer, the billionaire chief of Farallon Capital, led last year's successful underdog battle against an oil industry ballot initiative. Proposition 23, cloaked in a mantra of job creation, would have killed California's green energy laws for the sake of nothing but corporate profit. Check out the short video that introduced Steyer, who received Consumer Watchdog's Philip Burton Public Service Award. The award was handed to Steyer by actor and Proposition 23 spokesman Benjamin Bratt, who also donated countless hours tot he cause. (Burton, our hero, was a California legislator and member of Congress whose own "Rage for Justice" was the title of his biography.)  It's an award that has gone in the past to wildly different honorees including Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Nurses Association head Rose Ann DeMoro, champion of the poor Elizabeth Edwards and actor Dennis Quaid, who won major hospital safety improvements after his newborn twins nearly died from a medication error. Joseph Cotchett, the lawyer who received the Philip Burton Lifetime Legal Achievement Award, brought lawsuits on behalf of the environment in the 1970s that ultimately morphed into the states' highly protective coastal laws. Nearly 40 years later, he kept Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger from selling off historic state assets just to raise some ready cash--and maybe do a favor for certain friendly private investors. In between, he's done a legendary amount of challenging public work--including representation of CIA agent Valerie Plame, who was famously outed by the Bush Administration. Phil Burton's brother John Burton, another distinguished champion of the people, presented the award to Steyer. The two inductees into our Consumer Advocate Hall for Fame both struck back against health insurance industry greed and misrepresentation, even in the midst of personal tragedy.