Insider news and analysis from America's top consumer advocates     Oil Watchdog is a project of Consumer Watchdog

 

It's a cheap shot, but I'm never above making the oil lobby look phony and stupid. Thanks to TPM for posting a photo from an American Petroleum Institute pamphlet that appears to show a (slightly) racially diverse group of industry employees. Except... 1. It's a stock photo of some random group. 2. The race of two figures was changed, one from white to black, the other from white to Asian. 3. Both are really the same man.

 

It's good news that ExxonMobil lost a big federal court case today in New York, where a judge ordered it to pay $105 million for contamination of drinking water with a now-banned gasoline additive. The bad news is, in Exxon-world, it's better to pay $110 million on endless legal delay than admit wrongdoing. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company was "disappointed ... and evaluating its options." If history is any judge, it'll end up in the Supreme Court like the Exxon Valdez case.

I figured the vehement reaction of the fuel industry last week, as Costco agreed to sell gasoline adjusted for temperature, was because Costco was the first crack in the industry's united front. I think now I've found the real reason: a court order last month telling the oil industry to cough up all of its documents on the hot fuel issue for a class action lawsuit. If that info goes public in a trial, I'd bet the industry's holier-than-thou protests that hot fuel doesn't really cheat consumers will get blown out the tailpipe.

Documents show political appointees interfered with California Energy Commission study of hot fuel ripoff to protect oil companies. Consumer Watchdog says government staff's consumer-oriented findings were altered by commissioners with ties to oil industry.

 

This just in...The Inspector General at the Department of the Interior found, according to the Associated Press, "Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties partied, had sex with and accepted golf and ski outings from employees of energy companies they were...

How did the "drill now, drill everywhere" gang persuade Americans that giving U.S. coastline and wilderness to oil companies is an energy policy? Credit goes to a brilliant deceiver who most people have never heard of: former GOP pollster and PR man Frank Luntz. Here's the memo he wrote for Bush and Dick Cheney in 2002 on what to say: drilling for oil is just "exploration," global warming is just "climate change," and "energy independence" is not a lie.

Around a meeting table at the California Energy Commission today, some of us were stifling yawns. Then, in one sentence, a veteran weights and measures regulator put the "hot fuel" issue in a perfect frame: Nearly every packaged liquid, from a gallon of kerosene to a quart of milk, is poured into its packaging with the amount adjusted to a benchmark temperature, guaranteeing exactly the same amount in every gallon, quart or pint. If a penny's worth matters for milk, how can a dollar's worth of "lost gas" not matter at the pump?

Federal District Judge in Kansas City refuses to dismiss suit against petroleum marketers alleging deceptive sale of gasoline and diesel fuel.

Spike in crude oil price to $88/barrel without new run-up in pump price exposes oil industry deception & profiteering. Oil companies' claim that crude oil costs drive gasoline price makes no sense with today's barrel prices up more than 40% over Spring, when pump prices hit $3.25/gallon.

Student rally & T-shirts warn Cal could become "UC-BP". $500 million BP deal near completion as Big Oil pumps money into colleges.