Chevron's army of lawyers isn't its only weapon in staving off the demand of Ecuadoran peasants that the company clean up its toxic drilling mess in the Amazon. Chevron is also happy to use deception, secret video and dirty tricksters. The problem with tricksters, however, is that it can be hard to keep them in the fold, and they can be so darned greedy. Consider the tale of secret videotaper Diego Borja, and the "expense money"of at least $169,000 that Chevron has heaped on him since August 2009.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 18, 2010
5-18-10 by dugan We know that federal regulators excused BP from filing a legally required detailed disaster plan on its ill-fated Gulf of Mexico oil rig. We know that BP’s assertions that it had such a plan were false–even though its own engineers warned three years ago about deficiencies in its blowout preventers. We [...]
Continue reading...Monday, May 17, 2010
5-17-10 by dugan So how much oil is really spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s exploded and sunk oil platform? 5,000 barrels a day (210,000 gallons) is the mainstream figure, issued by the government weeks ago after some hasty guesses. Scientists now think it’s many times that amount, but BP won’t even [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, September 23, 2009
09-23-09 by dugan Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s departure from the national Chamber of Commerce is a strong message, one that more middle-of-the-road corporations ought to hear. The Chamber, claiming to represent all of U.S. business, still denies global warming and seeks to undercut the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency. PG&E, California’s largest [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, September 10, 2009
09-10-09 by dugan Who knew that investment giant Goldman Sachs was in the oil business? I’m picturing top execs earning their tens-of-millions bonuses in hard hats and oil-streaked yellow overalls. The news is part of an otherwise depressing Wall Street Journal story on how hard, and successfully, the financial industry is lobbying against regulations [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, September 3, 2009
09-03-09 by dugan Maybe it’s just my cynical nature, but Chevron’s "smoking gun" video alleging corruption in Ecuador has its fishy points. Chevron has gotten some media on a charge that a video it obtained implicates the judge in a big civil case against Chevron in a bribery scandal, but even the Wall Street [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, July 30, 2009
Oil Price Spike, As Exxon And Others’ Profit Skids, Shows Potential For New Economy-Killing Energy Roller Coaster, Says Consumer Watchdog Profit Reports Offer More Proof That Oil Prices Are Disconnected From Actual Petroleum CONTACT: Judy Dugan, July 30, 2009 Santa Monica, CA — On the same day that Exxon Mobil reported a second quarter profit [...]
Continue reading...Monday, July 13, 2009
7-13-09 by dugan Investment bank Goldman Sachs is about to report an eye-popping profit increase, leaving the rest of the economy in the dust. That should remind us of Goldman’s key role in the energy-price bubble that brought us $4.11 a gallon gasoline last summer, and brought Goldman a black-gold rush of profits. It’s a [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, May 13, 2009
05-13-09 by dugan If you go to YouTube and search for "Chevron 60 Minutes," the first three results look like the image at left. Two of them are a real and tough "60 Minutes" report on Chevron’s liability for toxic pollution of the Ecuadorean Amazon by Texaco, which Chevron took over. The top search [...]
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Monday, April 18, 2011
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