The Watchdog Blog
Israel doesn't produce a drop of oil, but that hasn't stopped the price of crude oil and gasoline from rising sharply in the last week. (As far as speculative markets are concerned, any armed conflict in the Middle East is good enough.) According to the federal Energy Information Administration, pump prices for regular gasoline are up 7 cents nationwide for the week, to $1.684. California's pump price is up 6.4 cents a gallon for the week, and up 15 cents since Dec. 15.
Remember those crazy gyrations of crude oil prices last spring and summer? Price gyrations of nearly 10% in a day for no economically rational reason, as crude oil marched to $145 a barrel (and gasoline was $4 and up a gallon)? The turn of the year brought the Mini-Me version of the same, at lower stakes. It's a reminder that the new administration can't dawdle on regulating energy markets.
With a new administration a few weeks from office, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in opposition, the likelihood of new offshore oil rigs popping up along the California coast may seem slim. But never underestimate the lobbying power of oil. The San Francisco Chronicle today offers a chilling overview of how much coastal area the industry covets. There's a map as well (below the jump), showing where companies would like to put their rigs--mostly within sight of land, because that's where the oil is...
The White House giveaways have been so fast and furious that they're hard to track. But here are two recent tales and a bracingly funny video that round up the oil industry's lame-duck season of loot--our stockings may be empty, but not Exxon's (and friends').
The oracle of progressive opinion, the New York Times editorial page, articulated the core concept for new privacy protection in America: "Internet users should be able to control how much of their personal data companies keep."
It's great to see a story that puts together the scathing investigative criticism of the Defense Department's torture-enabling former chief counsel, William Haynes, and Haynes' new job as chief counsel for Chevron Corp. A report today by Andrew Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle doesn't delve into Chevron's own human-rights problems, but Ross quotes Haynes' amoral defense of approving the torture of American military prisoners.
Today's report by Robert Pear in the New York Times, about about one of the 4,200 house parties on health care reform being convened across America on health...
California is a bellwether for the nation, for good and ill. Today it's for ill, in the most literal way. The state's economy has crumpled and its politicians wallow in a budget gridlock that could shut down the charity clinics that are...
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