Douglas Heller is a consumer advocate. In addition to being the Executive
Director of California-based nonprofit, nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer
and Consumer Rights, he is a policy expert on insurance and energy matters,
regularly testifying on those and other corporate accountability issues
before Congress and State Legislatures throughout the country.


Heller has led successful campaigns to pass whistleblower protection
laws, the nation's first low-cost auto insurance program for the poor and
was among the first in the nation to identify the market manipulation by
Enron and other energy firms during the California energy crisis.


Heller works with patient rights groups around the country, speaking to
lawmakers and the media about the necessity of insurance regulation and the
injustice of restrictions on the legal rights of victims of medical
negligence. He has authored numerous reports on issues such
as energy deregulation, medical malpractice and insurance industry
low-balling.


Prior to advocacy and community organizing with the Foundation, Heller spent
two years as a public school teacher in rural Louisiana through the national
program Teach For America. Heller received his B.A. in Political Science
from the University of California, Berkeley.

Blog Entries by Doug Heller

Insurance Companies' Line: Katrina Wasn't a Hurricane

Posted September 8, 2005 | 09:20 PM (EST)


Leave it to insurance companies to waste no time finding a way to let themselves off the hook. At ConsumerWatchdog.org we are already hearing from Katrina survivors who are being told that their insurance won't cover them because "it was a flood not a hurricane" that caused the damage...

Read Post

Why Are Oil Stocks Up 5% This Week?

Posted September 2, 2005 | 01:33 PM (EST)


As prices for gasoline reach record highs all around the country because, we are told, of the devastation to our oil infrastructure and refining capacity, the stock market is exposing the oil industries' despicable secret: the winds of Katrina will be a windfall for big oil.

The Yahoo Major Oil...

Read Post

Did Bush's SEC Nominee Perjure Himself at Senate Confirmation Hearing?

Posted July 28, 2005 | 03:30 PM (EST)


When Rep. Chris Cox testified before the Senate Banking Committee about his nomination to head the SEC on Tuesday, he seems to have scooted over the honesty line.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights called on the Committee to go after a recently revealed series of documents...

Read Post

Senate Dems: Weaker by the Moment

Posted July 26, 2005 | 06:32 PM (EST)


Given the opportunity to take on President Bush's (and big business's) nominee to head the Securities & Exchange Commission, at Tuesday's confirmation hearing, Senate Dems decided to take a pass. The nominee, Rep. Chris Cox, is about as anti-investor as they get, but for some reason, the Democrats don't seem...

Read Post

Schwarzenegger's Muscle-Gate

Posted July 14, 2005 | 07:53 PM (EST)


Arnold told voters he was so rich that he didn't need anyone else's money; he could be trusted not to be corrupted. Well, disclosures in today's papers and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Arnold is raking in millions every year based on the advertising revenue from...

Read Post

Arnold W. Schwarzenegger

Posted June 29, 2005 | 02:21 PM (EST)


Yesterday, with everybody watching the President's speech, California's leading man pulled a W of his own by appointing an oil industry lobbyist to run the California Air Resources Board. The board has historically ranked among the nation's leading environmental agencies. The appointee, Cindy Tuck, lobbies for the "California Council...

Read Post

This Election Brought to You By...

Posted June 13, 2005 | 09:53 PM (EST)


Although his live announcement was bumped off the evening news to cover MJ, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did indeed announce that Californians will go to the polls this November to vote on a series of initaitives that Schwarzenegger has been touting on behalf of big business. Knowing that Arnold's extra election...

Read Post

Insurance Companies Lying? You're Kidding Me!

Posted June 1, 2005 | 05:22 PM (EST)


For the last few years, insurance firms have pushed to limit the liability of doctors and hospitals when they injure patients due to negligence or error. The companies, along with the American Medical Association, aruge that skyrocketing insurance premiums for physicians are driven by exponentially increasing claims payments made to...

Read Post

Does anyone know a good terrorist? Hank Greenberg's looking for one.

Posted May 11, 2005 | 02:27 AM (EST)


Mega-insurer AIG keeps showing up in the news. Most recently it's because more execs may have been involved in "dubious accounting adjustments" than was originally thought. But that doesn't mean we should stop having fun at deposed CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's expense. (See, he's had fun, and has gotten...

Read Post

No! to Foreign Oil (but yes to foreign gas)

Posted May 4, 2005 | 02:21 PM (EST)


President Bush has released another version of his energy plan, which is generally a recasting of his previous energy plans. But this year's came with a new, make-you-do-a-doubletake soundbite. In his announcement, Bush proclaimed that "Our dependence on foreign energy is like a foreign tax on the American people."...

Read Post