Oil Hits Record High...Again

FLASH: Well, petroleum rose up to just about $128/barrel today and settled into the $126 range. Ho hum, another record high. Good a time as any to share yet another Black Energy anecdote from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://SimpleSolutionsBook1.com):


This story compares Exxon Mobile’s leader, Lee R. Raymond, who, in 2006, went into retirement with a compensation package of $398 million, with, well, me:

My retirement package was a simple pension, medical insurance and free parking on campus. Lee (pardon me for this informality, as I never met the gentleman) and I both graduated as chemical engineers in the early sixties, he, from Wisconsin (rated #1 in chemical engineering in those days) and I, from Stanford University (ten years later rated #1). He got his PhD from the University of Minnesota and went to work for the research office of Humble/Enco in Tulsa.

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I toiled in industry for a while, went back for a PhD, and then began teaching at the University of Hawaii in 1971. At about the time he joined H/E, it became Exxon. I worked in the U.S. Senate from 1979-1982 just after the second oil crisis and drafted sustainable resources legislation, including the original bill on hydrogen. I returned to the University of Hawaii and became director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute in 1984. Raymond was made president of Exxon in 1987.

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Four years later, the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil, the largest spill in the U.S. Raymond supervised over the $2.1 billion cleanup and Exxon agreed to pay almost $1 billion over ten years.

The University of Hawaii merely plodded along with budget problems in the 1990s, but my Institute annually generated more extramural funds/person than other unit on campus. During this interval, he was made chairman of the board and is known to have called global warming a hoax.

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I tried to form a climate warming remediation team, then chaired the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel. He wisely remained very close to the Bush/Cheney White House and helped found the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. But I helped initiate the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR) to form international partnerships in sustainable systems. I assisted in bringing a National Science Foundation marine biotechnology engineering center to Hawaii, expounded on the virtues of the Blue Revolution and continued to develop the future of energy, hydrogen and biomethanol.

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By all free enterprise standards, he was fabulously successful, for Exxon increased in value by a factor of five during his chairmanship. PICHTR has never really developed much, yet. Hawaii, nor the world, never really used anything I advanced. Lee no doubt worked every day of his life and, it is reported, averaged, with all compensations, about $150,000 per day during this period. I never got close to making that amount...per year.

Then, too, is he worth a $400 million retirement buy out? Such is the nature of our way of life and the energy problem. Is this fair? Well, life is not fair. But, maybe this is why we need some simple solutions. Perhaps if this book becomes wildly successful I will begin to catch up with Lee’s bank account.

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I’m writing this paragraph from Las Vegas, so it seems appropriate for me to work in a local citizen. Lee is a rich man, but, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who helped bring Las Vegas to Macau with the Sands, and more, only third on the list of richest people (to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet), for the past two years, has been earning $1 million per hour. One million dollars per hour! Poor Lee, only $6,250/hour. Wonder what Bill and Warren make per hour?

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Lee, I would love to meet with you someday to congratulate you on your achievements. Wish you well, honestly.