Portrait of Greed
Unless you're a player in the oil 'bidness', you probably don't know who Lee Raymond is. Last year he made $38 million, and you paid some of his salary whether you wanted to or not.
You have heard of his company, Exxon Mobil. Last year Exxon profited from the oil crunch to the tune of $25.3 billion, and threatens to beat that record this year with profits of $15 billion through the first six months. Even if you don't buy gas at their stations, that income is a drop in their very large bucket anyway. Exxon oil and natural gas production and sales, refining and chemical businesses take much more money from all our pockets -- and from the 200 other countries in which Exxon operates.
Under Raymond, Exxon has been one of the most successful, efficient and ruthless business operations in history. How ruthless? Between 1998 and 2004, Exxon gave more than $15 million to corporations whose mission was to counter efforts to regulate global warming. Most of these corporations are members of the Cooler Heads Coalition, formed in 1997 “to dispel the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis.” The Coalition includes such bastions of science as The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, which was formed in the early 90's by Phillip Morris to subvert the link between second-hand smoke and cancer. TAASC's executive director, a former tobacco lobbyist, now devotes his efforts to the virulent http://www.junkscience.com/ , a site that itself is the epitome of junk science. Greenpeace has identified about 40 other ExxonMobil-funded organizations that either have sought to undermine mainstream scientific findings on global warming or have affiliated with a small group of climate “naysayers” who continue to do so.
Exxon under Raymond, unlike many of its competitors, has not ventured into alternative energy research and development. Despite record profits, Exxon has not invested anything in renewable energy to ease America's oil dependency. Global corporations have only nominal loyalty to their home country.
More on Exxon's efforts to forestall action on global warming and other chicanery can be found at http://www.exxonsecrets.org/ and http://www.sierraclub.org/exxposeexxon/.
Lee Raymond downplayed the investment in propaganda by saying, "you don't have to spend a lot of money to aggravate the proponents." Now why would the head of the largest and most successful oil company in the world want to aggravate the proponents of actively combating global warming? There's only one possible reason, the reason that robber barons of old would understand and endorse. Greed. Raymond is a throwback to those ruthless men of the past, devoted to nothing more than the success of his company at any cost.
The good news is that Raymond is retiring at the end of this year. The bad news is that his successor is cut of the same cloth. According to this article in the Washington Post, "Analysts said they expect no significant change in the company's direction."
The Sierra Club has a petition on their site urging Exxon to change their direction. Public pressure from environmentalists has never deterred them before, but pressure from millions of consumers might have some affect. Let's face it, Georgie sure ain't gonna slap the hand that feeds him.
If nothing else we can spread the word and shed some light under Exxon's rock.
You have heard of his company, Exxon Mobil. Last year Exxon profited from the oil crunch to the tune of $25.3 billion, and threatens to beat that record this year with profits of $15 billion through the first six months. Even if you don't buy gas at their stations, that income is a drop in their very large bucket anyway. Exxon oil and natural gas production and sales, refining and chemical businesses take much more money from all our pockets -- and from the 200 other countries in which Exxon operates.
Under Raymond, Exxon has been one of the most successful, efficient and ruthless business operations in history. How ruthless? Between 1998 and 2004, Exxon gave more than $15 million to corporations whose mission was to counter efforts to regulate global warming. Most of these corporations are members of the Cooler Heads Coalition, formed in 1997 “to dispel the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis.” The Coalition includes such bastions of science as The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, which was formed in the early 90's by Phillip Morris to subvert the link between second-hand smoke and cancer. TAASC's executive director, a former tobacco lobbyist, now devotes his efforts to the virulent http://www.junkscience.com/ , a site that itself is the epitome of junk science. Greenpeace has identified about 40 other ExxonMobil-funded organizations that either have sought to undermine mainstream scientific findings on global warming or have affiliated with a small group of climate “naysayers” who continue to do so.
Exxon under Raymond, unlike many of its competitors, has not ventured into alternative energy research and development. Despite record profits, Exxon has not invested anything in renewable energy to ease America's oil dependency. Global corporations have only nominal loyalty to their home country.
More on Exxon's efforts to forestall action on global warming and other chicanery can be found at http://www.exxonsecrets.org/ and http://www.sierraclub.org/exxposeexxon/.
Lee Raymond downplayed the investment in propaganda by saying, "you don't have to spend a lot of money to aggravate the proponents." Now why would the head of the largest and most successful oil company in the world want to aggravate the proponents of actively combating global warming? There's only one possible reason, the reason that robber barons of old would understand and endorse. Greed. Raymond is a throwback to those ruthless men of the past, devoted to nothing more than the success of his company at any cost.
The good news is that Raymond is retiring at the end of this year. The bad news is that his successor is cut of the same cloth. According to this article in the Washington Post, "Analysts said they expect no significant change in the company's direction."
The Sierra Club has a petition on their site urging Exxon to change their direction. Public pressure from environmentalists has never deterred them before, but pressure from millions of consumers might have some affect. Let's face it, Georgie sure ain't gonna slap the hand that feeds him.
If nothing else we can spread the word and shed some light under Exxon's rock.
posted by Bear at 1:51 PM
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