Author Archives | Jamie Court
Jamie Court - who has written 73 posts on Oil Watchdog.
Jamie Court is the President of Consumer Watchdog and author of The Progressive's Guide to Raising Hell.
The Los Angeles Times calls Court "a tireless consumer advocate." The Wall Street Journal writes, "He's notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks on the health- and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who takes their campaign cash."
Court helped to pioneer the HMO patients' rights movement in the United States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere. He has also led major corporate campaigns to reform insurers, banks, oil companies, utilities and political practices. Court is a regulator commentator on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" program and on the Los Angeles Times op-ed page.
Court has also worked as an advocate for the homeless and as a community organizer. He has a degree in history from Pomona College.
Blog Post
Arnold Exposed
7-7-07 by Court Here’s my colleague Carmen Balber’s blow-by-blow account of today’s legislative hearing about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role in slowing down his greenhouse gas regulators. The most juicy tidbit is the former executive director of the Air Resources Board said the governor promised the oil industry the Board would go slow. Here’s Carmen’s post [...]
Blog Post
The Hot Fuel Ripoff
Friday, July 6, 2007
It’s simple physics. When the temperature of gasoline rises above 60 degrees, gasoline expands. The amount of energy the gallon delivers shrinks by volume. Since our gas pumps don’t account for the bigger volume, motorists receive less gasoline than they should. Here’s the whole story, from a prize-winning series by the Kansas City Star: Hot [...]
Blog Post
Audit The Pollutenator
Monday, July 2, 2007
7-2-07 by Court The independent state auditor should investigate the reason for the dismissal of Air Resource Board Chairman Bob Sawyer after the resignation of Board executive director Cartherine Witherspoon today. The public deserves to know the truth behind the firing and Governor Schwarzenegger should welcome the investigation to clear the air. Witherspoon [...]
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“Independence” Behind Firing
Friday, June 29, 2007
6-29-07 by Court The other shoe over Arnold Schwarzenegger’s firing of the Air Resources Board Chief Bob Sawyer dropped in the LA Times today. Sawyer says the entire issue is political independence and his desire to move quickly on removing greenhouse gas emissions. Arrnold may have donned a green tie, marketed himself as the [...]
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NY Judge KOs Chevron
Thursday, June 28, 2007
6-28-07 by Court Chevron failed to convince a US District Court judge in New York that the case against the company for contaminating the Amazon should be sujbect to arbitration and removed from Ecuador’s justice system. 30,000 Amazon residents are seeking to make Chevron pay $6 billion in clean up costs for subsidary Texaco’s dumping [...]
Blog Post
Senate Energy Bill Redux
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
6-20-07 by Court What a difference a year makes. Last year oil companies were denying they had a hand in global warming and the big US Senate debate was whether to open up the Alaskan wildlife reserve to drilling for crude oil. Well, now the debate is on about what type of alternative fuel [...]
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The Nuns Vs. Exxon
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Bloomberg has the pre-fight preview of the battle at today’s Exxon shareholder meeting between the $1 trillion in investor capital led by the Sisters of St Dominic and an Exxon board that does not want to set goals for reduction greenhouse gases. The investor group, including the nuns and CALPERS (California state employees’ retirement fund), [...]
Blog Post
Snake Oil For Foreign Oil
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
5-29-07 by Court The New York Times outs the coal industry’s latest scheme to turn high gasoline prices into a giant subsidy for coal-to-liquid fuel. The industry argues our energy should be coming from Middle America not the Middle East, but take a close look at the greenhouse gas emission index. It’s questionable that coal [...]
Blog Post
Investor Revolt
Saturday, May 26, 2007
5-26-07 by Court A group of powerful Exxon investors are leading a campaign to stop the reappointment of Public Issue Committee Chair Michael Boskin to the Exxon Board of Directors. Their complaint is that Boskin has consistently refused to meet with them on the issue of global warming despite the fact that he is [...]
Blog Post
The Ethanol Excuse
Friday, May 25, 2007
The New York Times reports that oil companies are using the political push to increase ethanol production as an excuse not to increase their refinery production The nation’s fuel supplies are so low that we have broken gas price records. The federal government is even recalculating inflation-adjusted gas prices to, depending upon how you look [...]
Blog Post
Politics Lowering Prices?
Friday, May 25, 2007
5-25-07 by Court The Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), a pricey oil industry insider news wire, is reporting that gasoline prices on the "spot market" are falling like a rock. The change isn’t as dramatic in the California or New York, but it’s pretty clear that the new Congressional hearings, legislation, and press conferences have [...]
Blog Post
The Crude Gap
Thursday, May 24, 2007
One consequence of record gasoline prices is that the oil industry is no longer able to claim with a straight face that crude oil prices are responsible for inflation at the pump. In today’s Contra Costa Times and last night on KGTV in San Diego, the oil lobby responded to our criticism by acknowledging that [...]
Blog Post
Defining Gouging
Thursday, May 24, 2007
5-24-07 by Court TV is buzzing about the House of Representatives passage of new legislation to restrict gasoline price gouging. The laudable goal is to restrict unconscionable prices, and it is laudable that the debate is heating up in Washington about what we should pay at the pump. The problem with price gouging laws, though, [...]
- "Gas Pain" At Pump and Smokestack
- Study: Texas-Based Valero Gouging California Drivers For A Decade
- Why Is Gasoline Price Staying High?
- Taking on Koch Industries in Times Sq.
- Absolute Gasoline Price Record in 2011?
- Earl Richards: The oil corporations are similiar to a public util...
- panamalaw: Thanks for every other informative blog. Where el...
- Online Romance: I'm so very much happy for this cool blog article....
- Rob: I was not addressing speculation. I was addressing...
- Judy Dugan: Here is an authoritative study by Houston's James ...
Friday, July 6, 2007
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