Oil Watchdog

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

We've reported about what's wrong in the secrecy around BP's payments to Kenneth Feinberg and his law firm, which is doling out compensation for BP's devastating oil spill in the Gulf. Monday, though, the Center for Justice and Democracy got deep into the guts of the matter.

Jerry Brown, Can Fiji Make You a Wimp?

Thursday, December 2, 2010

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The wee island nation of Fiji managed Wednesday to back down a California-owned company and extract a fee of 8 US cents per liter on Fiji Water. The state of California can't even manage to back down Big Oil and charge a few cents a gallon on oil pumped out of its public lands. Jerry Brown, are you listening?

Spill Commission Defends Its Top Lawyer

J.M. Broder

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The panel named by President Obama to investigate the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout on Tuesday rejected a call by a consumer activist group for the resignation of its chief counsel, Fred H. Bartlit Jr. The group, Consumer Watchdog, said that the panel should dismiss Mr. Bartlit because his law firm, Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, once represented Halliburton, one of the companies involved in drilling the BP well.

BP’s Long, Ugly History of Profit Over Safety

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

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.

Obama: Yank Ethically Deaf BP Fund Chief From Chamber Speech

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

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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.

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

Carmen Balber

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

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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.

Koch Brothers: Spiders At The Center Of A Web

Thursday, October 21, 2010

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 [...]

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

Monday, October 18, 2010

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.

Consumer Watchdog Exposes Koch Industries on Times Square Superscreen For Pollution, Tea Party Funding, and Climate Change Denial Using Coke Parody

Jamie Court

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

New York, NY -- A national consumer group is running a 30 second commercial on a Times Square Superscreen that challenges Koch Industries, "the largest oil company you've never heard of," for its record of environmental degradation, political influence, Tea Party funding and climate change denial.

Study: Texas-Based Valero Gouging California Drivers For A Decade

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Top Prop 23 Funder Doesn’t Want Greentech Competition To Get in Way of Profiteering Santa Monica, CA – A new report by Consumer Watchdog's OilWatchdog.org project finds that Valero Energy reaped over $4.5 billion in refining profit while gouging California motorists since it bought its second California refinery in 2002. The oil refining giant, which is also the largest funder of Proposition 23, averaged 37% higher margins on each barrel of oil it refined in California than at refineries it owns elsewhere in the country, according to data published in company financial reports.

Fiorina Joins the Koch-heads. Ka-Ching!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

There’s a name that’s becoming as ubiquitous in dirty oil politics as Coke cans are in greasy spoons. And it’s pronounced like the soft drink, but spelled Koch. Koch-heads now on the radar include Carly Fiorina, the Tea Party and Proposition 23.

Big Oil’s ‘jobs’ echo chamber

Thursday, September 16, 2010