Industry

California Committee Looking At High Gas Prices Sets Its Sights on Market Power

The Energy Commission committee charged with finding a solution for California’s high gas prices has sometimes been a hostile place for consumers over the last year and a half. At Tuesday's meeting, that changed. The Air Resources Board, NRDC, four members of the committee, and even oil trader Vitol SA echoed Consumer Watchdog to question refiners' market power and lack of transparency for price spikes.

Perspective Needed At California Energy Commission

California has a summer blend of gasoline in order for cars to run more efficiently and cleaner in the warmer months. This year, refiners used their market power to raise prices after the switch took place in Los Angeles. The blend is marginally more expensive to make, but not by anywhere near what LA refiners are charging their gas stations for the new blend: 37 cents more.

Panel Serves Up Tepid Recommendations For Reforming The Toxics Agency

While Governor Jerry Brown vetoed Senate pro Tem Kevin de León’s signature legislation a year ago to revamp the Department of Toxics Substances Control (DTSC), he approved funds for an Independent Review Panel to advise what to do with the profoundly dysfunctional agency. In vetoing the powerful legislation, Brown signaled that he wants business as usual.

The Messy And Public Breakup of Dave Regan And the Hospital Industry

Capitol Watchdog has been closely following the disintegration of the corporate collaboration between Dave Regan, president of Service Employees Int

Time to Expose the Secrets of Big Oil’s Price Manipulation

Big Oil has fought for years to keep its secrets invisible. But this week, state officials may have finally realized that what is good for the oil industry has been devastating to Californians.

The People v. CPUC’s Michael Picker

The president of the California Public Utilities Commission secretly meets in a Warsaw hotel room with a Southern California Edison executive and eventually ratepayers wind up paying 70 percent of the $4.7 billion tab to shutter the defective San Onofre nuclear power plant. Does that president sound like Michael Peevey, now under criminal investigation for alleged ex-parte communications, obstruction of justice, and other transgressions?

Pages

Capitol Watchdog is owned and operated by nonprofit Consumer Watchdog. For more information about Consumer Watchdog visit http://www.consumerwatchdog.org