Not only did Exxon generate a $36 BILLION PROFIT last year, but now its CEO, Lee Raymond, is set to receive one of the largest retirement packages in history:
April 14, 2006— Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn’t complaining.
Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.
“We’re all in this together, everywhere in the world,” he testified.
We’re all in this together? Well, I guess some of us are more in than others. Not only is Raymond getting this multi-million dollar award for past service, but he also banked a salary last year of $51.1 million, or $141,000 per day. Our family doesn’t make $140,000 in a year, much less a single day.
Of course, we don’t head up a multinational oil company that contributed over $1,000,000 to Republican candidates alone in the 2000 election year cycle, and received generous favors in return:
ExxonMobil’s investments have paid off well. Over the last decade, ExxonMobil has benefited from more than $5 billion of support from taxpayer backed institutions including:
* $651 million for the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project from the World Bank and the US Export-Import Bank;
* $1.17 billion for oil field development in Western Siberia from the World Bank and the US Export-Import Bank;
* $116 million for oil field development on Russia’s Sakhalin Island from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.Our tax dollars should not be used to subsidize environmentally and socially destructive projects by one of the world’s largest corporations.
ExxonMobil has spent more than any other oil company on lobbying because it wants to see our government enact legislation and adopt positions that are favorable to the corporation. The issues on which it has lobbied recently include rejecting the Kyoto Protocol (which the Bush/Cheney administration did), drafting a National Energy Strategy that increased US reliance on oil (which the Bush/Cheney administration did), and getting rid of the head of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (which the Bush/Cheney administration helped to do).
I don’t have to remind anyone that when you pay for lobbyists these days, thanks to the K Street Project that is the equivalent of additional donations to the GOP. And what a good return Exxon and Mr. Raymond have received for their political donations. Pay a few million dollars to get back a few billion dollars. It’s the equivalent of winning the lottery but with the element of chance removed from the equation.
So, why be surprised when the Big Oil’s executives start cashing in their chips from all their investments in Republicans. After all, Exxon shareholders shouldn’t be the only ones who benefit from the company’s shrewd political investments.
And it’s a great deal for Republican politicians, too. Why Bush himself received $1,724,579 in campaign contributions from from the oil industry from 1998 through 2004.
Of course, you and I know who ends up paying for all of this in the end. But keep it quiet. Wouldn’t want to spoil Lee Raymond’s retirement party, now would we?
