Consumer Federation of California

“The average working family is having a very tough time right now,” said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. “The utilities want them to pay more so that profitable companies can pay less. That’s just wrong.” Read More ›

“We applaud the ALJ’s reasoned decision,’ said Richard Holober, Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of California. ‘The judge rightly found there was no justification for shifting these costs away from a company like Shell Oil and on to a family struggling to make ends meet.” Read More ›

“California voters didn’t fall for a Texas oil tycoon’s $10 billion money grab, no matter how much he spent camouflaging it as green,” Richard Holober, a spokesman for the No on Prop 10 campaign, and Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of California, said in a statement after the bill was defeated. “Proposition 10 is the ultimate example of a wealthy special interest abusing the ballot initiative process to enrich itself.” Read More ›

The No on Proposition 10 campaign won a lopsided defeat of T Boone Pickens’ ballot measure. With 56 % of the ballots counted, 61% of voters were voting No and only 39% were voting Yes. Read More ›

“This has proved that one special interest, no matter how rich it is, can’t hoodwink Californians into passing a measure that just lines that interest’s pockets,” said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. Read More ›

Zack Kaldveer, spokesman of the Federation of Consumers of California, maintained that incarceration is not the key facotr in reducing delinquency. “Rehabilitation saves money in comparison to sending people to jail. Prop 5 treats the problem of drug addiction as a public health issue, not a criminal one.”, said Kaldveer. Read More ›

The measure is poorly written and attempts to distort the market in favor of natural-gas products that help the business interests of the people sponsoring the measure, said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California in San Mateo.
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The No on Prop 10 Campaign issued a strongly worded letter today to Yes on 10 Campaign Manager Marty Wilson and Chair Alison Hart demanding an immediate public retraction for an email they sent associating Proposition 10 with Senator Obama and his energy plan. Read More ›

Listen to Zack Kaldveer discuss Proposition 10 and why voters should “send Pickens Packing” by voting No! The segment was recorded a few days before Election Day and CFC’s big victory over oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens.
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Proposition 10 is a prime example of that change. It was placed on the ballot by oilman T. Boone Pickens, a Texas billionaire, whose natural gas company stands to gain financially if it’s approved…Holober said there is nothing in the measure that would prevent a trucking company, for example, from qualifying for the rebates and then moving the vehicles out of state.
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Richard Holober, executive director of Consumer Federation of California, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “Look, we’re not against natural gas. What we’re against is using billions of dollars of tax money…to distort the market and promote one form of energy over others that we think have a much better future.”
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Watch Richard Holober of the Consumer Federation of California represent the No no 10 side in a debate against Todd Campbell of the “Yes” side (he’s an employee of T. Boone Pickens Clean Energy Fuels Corp). Read More ›

“While Proposition 10 appears to be a measure to improve our air and protect the global environment, its public subsidies are heavily skewed toward building markets for an energy source that could increase global warming emissions.”
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