Oil Watchdog

Blog Post

Did Halliburton Push Its ‘Cost-Cutting’ Cement?

Posted by Judy Dugan

Halliburton is the sloppy contractor with no license, bad B.O. and helpers off the street who use gravel to stretch the cement and pour your driveway without the rebar. Except writ large. And deadly. As the New York Times story says, “Halliburton knew weeks before the fatal explosion of the Macondo well in the Gulf [...]

Blog Post

Hey, Chevron. Clean up Your Own Messes

Posted by Judy Dugan

The Texas oil money behind Proposition 23 is widely known by now. But there’s been less publicity about Big Oil–specifically Chevron–putting $4 million into passing Propostion 26, according to a nifty interactive chart just released by OilChange International.

Blog Post

Feinberg to Chamber: “It won’t work”

Posted by Carmen Balber

I had lunch in the Chamber of Commerce’s AIG-sponsored “Hall of Flags” today, where BP compensation fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg told the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform that the legal system is working just fine.

Blog Post

BP’s Long, Ugly History of Profit Over Safety

Posted by Judy Dugan

Anyone who thinks BP’s big new promise to put safety before profit should read or watch the ProPublica/Frontline investigation of BP’s wretched safety history. (The Frontline documentary airs Tuesday). It’s the story of a corporation that for years cut costs to fuel growth above all, viewed safety as a waste of money and baldly lied to regulators.

Blog Post

Obama: Yank Ethically Deaf BP Fund Chief From Chamber Speech

Posted by Judy Dugan

The charitable interpretation of Kenneth Feinberg’s keynote speech Wednesday for the Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform is that the BP compensations fund administrator is deaf to the implications. When Feinberg opens his mouth, he’ll be validating a powerful and viciously anti-consumer organization whose parent, the Chamber, is deeply involved in pro-corporate politics.

Press Release

Obama Should Stop BP Fund Administrator Feinberg From Giving Chamber Of Commerce Keynote Or Fire Him, Watchdog Says

CONTACT: Carmen Balber , 202-629-3043; or Jamie Court, 310-874-9989

Washington, DC — Consumer Watchdog asked President Obama to force BP Fund Administrator Kenneth Feinberg to withdraw from a keynote address Wednesday at a Chamber of Commerce group dedicated to eviscerating spill victims’ legal rights, and to fire Feinberg if he refuses.

Blog Post

Dirty Hand of Europe’s Polluters in Senate Races

Posted by Judy Dugan

Large, high-polluting European companies including BP, petrochemical company BASF and chemical/pharmaceutical company Bayer are setting a whole new standard for hypocrisy. They resist new climate legislation in Europe on the argument that until other big polluters like the U.S. take action, Europe must hold back. Yet the same foreign-based companies, through their U.S. subsidiaries, are [...]

Koch Brothers: Spiders At The Center Of A Web

Judy Dugan

The Koch brothers, with their $55 billion net worth backing a politics of destruction and greed, are bad enough alone. But they’re also coordinators of a web of corporate and media powers on the far right, as revealed this week by the Center for American Progress. (Link is to Truthout, which has a more readable [...]

Blog Post

Yes Men Pull a Double Fake on Chevron

Posted by Judy Dugan

Chevron seemed to act fast–too fast–to shoot down a spoof Monday of the oil company’s “We Agree” faux-caring ad campaign. The spoof was by the Yes Men group, whose “Chamber of Commerce” news conference last year, calling for strong climate change laws, made the real Chamber apoplectic. This time, the Yes Men sent out a [...]

Press Release

Tesoro Banks On High Gas Prices In California, Touts “West Coast Premium”

CONTACT: Judy Dugan , 310-392-0522 x315; or Doug Heller, x309

Consumer Group Calls On Pension Funds to Divest From Prop 23 Backers Tesoro, Valero

Santa Monica, CA – Consumer advocates revealed an investor slide presentation by Texas-based oil company Tesoro explaining that oil refiners keep gasoline supplies especially tight on the West Coast to keep profits high through higher pump prices. The slides were included in a letter from Consumer Watchdog to California’s large public pension funds, known as CalPERS and CalSTRS, calling on the funds to divest from Tesoro and another refiner, Valero, which are the chief sponsors of Proposition 23 on the November ballot. The Investment Committee of CalPERS is meeting in Long Beach today.

Blog Post

Tesoro Banks On High Gas Prices In California, Touts “West Coast Premium”

Posted by Doug Heller

Santa Monica, CA – Consumer advocates revealed an investor slide presentation by Texas-based oil company Tesoro explaining that oil refiners keep gasoline supplies especially tight on the West Coast to keep profits high through higher pump prices. The slides were included in a letter from Consumer Watchdog to California’s large public pension funds, known as [...]

Blog Post

California Pension Funds Should Divest From Price Gouging Oil Firms Behind Prop 23

Posted by Doug Heller

Consumer Watchdog has called on California’s two large public employee pension funds — CalPERS and CalSTRS — to sell off their holdings in Valero Energy and Tesoro, the big oil refiners behind Prop 23.  The two companies have gouged California drivers for years.  Consumer Watchdog writes in a letter to the board members of the [...]

Blog Post

New report documents problems at Big Oil U

Posted by John M. Simpson

Big Oil has flooded campuses with millions of dollars to pay for clean energy research at American universities, undermining tradition academic values and potentially furthering a narrow commercial research agenda, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for American Progress. Jennifer Washburn shows how Big Oil has underwritten research at top-tier universities with few protections for scientific objectivity or scholarly independence.