Oil, will it be the last straw for America?

I agree, but I don't think it will destroy our country. More people take public transportation than ever. And their's ways to save oil with electric/oil running car's. I'm sure their's people making oil-efficent, or something along the lines to oil. There's reserve's to last the coutnry, it make be more expensive but it will not destroy our country.

I have wondered since I left a job with a large oil company in the East, what it would take to wake the people of America to the fact that they face emminent distruction as a nation if we continue our current energy policy?

An oil company earned nearly 10 billion in profits last year. That was by their own admission a huge increase over the year before. It is difficult to explain, because no one hears, how it is that they increased their profits so dramatically at a time of increasing cost of supplies. Perhaps the simpliest answer is they gouged the American public!

Oil mogul on £82,000 a day sparks anger

Sarah Baxter, Washington
April 16, 2006


EVER since the soap opera Dallas, the exploits of Texas oilmen have fascinated America. But the disclosure that one of oil’s most powerful figures earned $144,000 (£82,000) a day — that’s £57 a minute— for his time at the helm of the world’s biggest oil company, has prompted a row about whether corporate fat cattery has been taken to new heights.

Lee R Raymond, the recently retired chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil — owners of the Esso chain in Britain — was paid more than £391m from 1993 to 2005, according to figures released last week. It dwarfs the salaries of other high earners in the oil business. Last year alone he made more than £228m.

With the cost of a gallon of petrol once again soaring at the pumps, critics claimed he was being rewarded for the easy profits from skyrocketing oil prices.

“Exxon was there long before Mr Raymond was there and will be long after he leaves,” Charles Elson, the director of the John L Weinberg Centre for Corporate Governance told The New York Times. “Yet he received Rockefeller returns without taking the Rockefeller risk.”

Raymond, 67, the son of a Midwestern railwayman, retired in December from his executive office known as the “God pod” in Irving, Texas, after a lifetime with Exxon. He presided over record profits, a soaring share price and a company which became America’s largest corporation. He was rewarded royally as a result.

In his final year with the company, Raymond earned almost £11.4m in salary and bonuses. He made £12m on share options he exercised and he was awarded shares worth £114m.

He also has share options worth almost £40m and a £56m pension that was paid as a lump sum.

Famous for the stingy way in which he ran Exxon, cutting costs at every opportunity, he worked from the fortress-like Exxon headquarters beneath a painting of a ferocious-looking tiger.

While rival oil companies such as BP and Shell began to invest heavily in renewable sources of energy Raymond, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering, remained sceptical about global warming and argued that oil would always be the company’s focus — although recently he has softened his stance and said that it will work on new technology to cut emissions from cars.

American consumer groups were furious at the size of his pay after recent sharp rises in petrol prices. “He served his stockholders well and the American public poorly,” said Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America.

Despite his astronomical remuneration, Raymond, who prided himself on his low profile in the press, has never been known for high living or extravagance.

Although Raymond holds the pay record in the oil business, other executives have earned more in a year. Apple once paid Steve Jobs, its founder, $775m (£442m) and Michael Eisner, former head of Walt Disney, received $577m (£330m). Both were mainly in the form of share options.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2136358,00.html

As for destroying this country, look at our economy. We have huge debt, a diminishing middle class, very few real manufacturing jobs left, an increasing population, housing costs are prohibitive, and energy cost increases permeate this fragile economy.

In most businesses, the rising cost of supplies is passed on to the customer as rising prices.

I think we agree that alternative energy is the answer.

I believe that oil companies are not the last bastion of free enterprise.

... Engineer doesn't subscribe to the theory that these changes were the direct result of the cost of energy. I do. ...

I don't know how many of you were there in the early 70's when oil embargos were fashionable, but I was and I can attest to the fact that the effect of the rise in oil prices and the beginning of the fall of our culture are joined.