Tag Archive | "cheaper cleaner"
A one-cheer climate victory
6-26-09 by dugan I’m certainly not a big fan of the House energy and climate bill that received a fake debate and a mini-filibuster before passing 219-212 in the House of Representatives today. By fake, I mean opponents who, for instance, called the bill "a twisted desire of the Democrat party" and "economic suicide" as well [...]
Continue reading...Reality check on oil prices
Monday, June 22, 2009
6-22-09 Nothing changed in the real world today–economy still shrinking, gasoline consumption near 10-year lows. But speculators who doubled the price of crude oil and sent prices at the pump shooting up got some kind of extraterrestrial message today. The price of crude oil dropped about $2.50 a barrel, to around $67, and gasoline started [...]
Continue reading...‘Heavy oil’ = Heavy pollution
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
06-17-09 by dugan Chevron’s evasions about its "upgrade" of a Northern California refinery to process dirtier, heavier oil got in well-deserved trouble with a state judge recently, thanks to unrelenting pressure from people who live near its already-dirty Richmond refinery (see poster below). Areas with less-organized citizens–including rural Mississippi (a project recently delayed for a [...]
Continue reading...Price roller coaster redux
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
06-09-09 by dugan Oil prices hitting close to $70 a barrel today are a speculator’s paradise. Their party, of course, is being paid for by consumers at the pump and struggling businesses. Gasoline is averaging $2.62 a gallon nationally and California is within a dime of $3.00 at the pump. Haven’t we been here before? [...]
Continue reading...‘Biofueled’ electric cars? Not yet
Thursday, June 4, 2009
06-04-09 by dugan The best use of biofuels like ethanol is not in the tank, but in making electricity to fuel all-electric cars, says a new study in Science magazine (free abstract, subscription pdf). I expect that’s right from a pure science view, but practicality points to using biofuels directly in hybrid and plug-in hybrid [...]
Continue reading...Oil guys just make it up. Again.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
06-03-09 by dugan The investigative journalists of the nonprofit ProPublica are dogged (and mostly alone these days) in following the oil industry’s push to get natural gas out of shale. How do they do that? With unregulated "hydraulic fracturing, a process in which water and chemicals are pumped underground at high pressure." Now [...]
Continue reading...Arnold’s Hummer vs. kids’ health
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
05-27-09 by dugan Is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vanity-green hydrogen fuel project worth the loss of health insurance for thousands of California children? Ah, I didn’t think so, either. Yet Schwarzenegger is out today touting his $14.4 million state subsidy to build seven hydrogen fueling stations for a nonexistent fleet of fuel-cell vehicles that almost no [...]
Continue reading...Send a ‘cleaner, cheaper’ fax
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
5-19-09 by dugan Just in time for President Obama’s decision to boost mileage standards for cars and light trucks, Consumer Watchdog has a blueprint for getting there without heaping unnecessary costs on consumers. We grade possible solutions from A to F, thusly: Hybrid and electric cars, A. Ethanol and biodiesel, B. Natural gas fuel, C. [...]
Continue reading...Cheaper & Cleaner Fuel Solutions
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
As President Obama Orders Tough Tailpipe Regulations, Consumer Group Offers ‘A’ to ‘F’ Solutions for Cleaner and Cheaper Transportation Americans Want Green Solutions But Worry About Costs; Handbook Identifies Wasted Billions, Best Paths Washington, DC — As President Obama announces new national tailpipe emission standards modeled on California’s, Consumer Watchdog is releasing a report that [...]
Continue reading...Exxon 1st Qtr Profit More Normal
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Exxon Profit at 2003-04 Levels ‘Shows What Normal Looks Like,’ Says Consumer Group Santa Monica, CA — Exxon Mobil’s first quarter profit of $4.55 billion dollars is small only by comparison to the last six years of nearly continuous profit records, said Consumer Watchdog. Its first quarter profit is more than $1 billion above what [...]
Continue reading...Costco Hot Fuel Deal Applauded
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Consumer Group Applauds Costco for Deal to Sell ‘Fair Fuel,’ Ending Hot Fuel Ripoff Agreement for Costco Gas Stations Would Adjust Fuel for Temperature in Several States. Oil Companies Will be ‘Making Fairness Illegal’ if They Try to Stop Costco Deal, says Consumer Watchdog Santa Monica, CA — Costco has agreed to settle a lawsuit [...]
Continue reading...Look who’s talking
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
03-25-09 by dugan There’s no doubt that the ethanol industry is in trouble. Credit crunch, ugly recession, and roller-coaster energy prices that spook investors. The Des Moines Register has a good rundown today on cellulosic ethanol startups that can’t get private investors to finance commercial-scale plants. One puzzling thing–a chief problem cited in the story [...]
Continue reading...Conflict Taints Hot Fuel Study Outcome
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Consumer Group Letters Charge Conflict of Interest in Oil-Friendly Outcome of California Fuel Temperature Study Gov. Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Bass Asked for Action to Protect Consumer Fairness Santa Monica, CA — Consumer Watchdog has filed a state complaint that a conflict of interest affected the outcome of the California Energy Commission’s study on the costs [...]
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- "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, June 26, 2009
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