Santa Monica, CA — Monday night’s explosion and hours-long fire at Chevron’s large oil refinery in Richmond, Ca., released toxic chemicals including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in unknown amounts, sending hundreds of local residents to local hospitals with breathing and eye complaints. Yet the state agency with the most expertise in regulating such toxins, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, claims it has little to no oversight of dangerous substances produced in refinery accidents, said Consumer Watchdog.
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 15, 2012
California gasoline prices are still soaring, even as the rest of the nation sees falling pump prices. The reason is simple: Refiners control the supply.
Continue reading...Saturday, April 7, 2012
Activist Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, calls it capitulation. "After you get bonked on the head by $4 and $5 gasoline enough times, maybe it doesn't hurt as much," Court said.
Continue reading...Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Here’s a petition from our ally Public Citizen, calling on federal regulators to quit stalling and rein in the financial speculators who are jacking up gasoline prices. It’s well worth the few seconds to click on the link and sign the petition. Fight back against Goldman Sachs and the other big banks whose speculation costs [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, August 31, 2011
"There's an old saying in [the] gasoline [industry]," Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, Calif., said Monday. "Prices go up like a rocket and down like a feather. There is a higher disconnect between the actual price of oil and the price of gasoline." Gasoline prices have been viewed as the "last bastion of competition," Dugan said, "but in this case that appears to have failed." Still, gasoline prices in the state vary significantly.
Continue reading...Monday, April 11, 2011
California-based nonprofit, Consumer Watchdog, recently provided a clue to where the "missing" gasoline may have gone. Recently, Judy Dugan, a petroleum market commentator for Consumer Watchdog, noted that the shares of oil refiners jumped in price last month "on bets that Japan would soon have to import a lot more heating oil and gasoline because of refinery fires and quake/ tsunami damage."
Continue reading...Thursday, March 10, 2011
Consumer Watchdog's Jamie Court discusses why the spike in gas prices - especially in California - has nothing to do with civil unrest, and everything to do with profiteering.
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The new blends cost an estimated 5 to 15 cents more to make per gallon than standard-issue, regular gas. Plus, California became dependent on a limited number of refineries, and those refineries reaped higher profit margins than similar facilities elsewhere in the United States. "It's a stranded market, and it's much easier to control prices in a stranded market," said Judy Dugan, research director of the Consumer Watchdog nonprofit group.
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 9, 2011
On KFMB-TV Channel 8 in San Diego, CA, Judy Dugan from Consumer Watchdog says rising gas prices are a form of highway robbery.
Continue reading...Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday's federal report on gasoline prices is a horror story. The national average price for a gallon of regular spiked seven cents to $3.05 in a week. That's an all-time record for this time of year--and for no good reason. Yet our federal regulators who could curb speculators are still sitting on their thumbs. I hope it's uncomfortable.
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Tuesday, August 7, 2012
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