Early April Fools Post: Lee Raymond Appointed to Solve America's Energy Crisis
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.25.06
Or perhaps it is a Halloween prank with someone in a Jabba the Hutt costume; In any case, the Bush Administration's Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has hand-picked former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond to" lead an influential study to develop policy solutions to America’s energy crisis". We suppose that even with a 400 million dollar severance you can get bored in retirement, but surely putting the fox of big oil in charge of a henhouse like this is a dumb move. Don't remember Lee? read David Robert's great farewell in ::Grist and join the campaign to overturn this appointment at ::Exxpose Exxon via ::Groovy Green
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Well, I for one won't make a fuss as long as he shares some of that money he's got stashed in his neck.
Couldn't ya' get a better picture of him. This one makes him look stoopid.
Couldn't ya' get a better picture of him. This one makes him look stoopid.
Oh, for crying out loud. Bush takes pleasure in destroying the environment.
Wow, that is one nasty picture.
They get a kick trying to piss off people like us. Pretty obvious by now.
They're basically trolls with a big stage.
I don't know how to view this. After all, he is the "former" CEO right? Who better to know all the ins and outs of the oil industry? My only concern would be he's too far invested in "big oil" to make the hard hitting, financially costly, decisions that need to be made for real change and progress.
Based on the Bush administration's history to do nothing that truly puts us on a track for lowering our oil habits, This doesn't look hopeful. Only time will tell.
Unless he was a former CEO that was ousted over something he'd done, thereby giving him a vendetta against the company (very very unlikely considering his severance package) I wouldn't trust him in the least. These guys remain friends for life, often helping out in choosing their successors.
This photo always makes me feel like his face is melting...
As far as the potential for this guy engaging in cronyism...hey, we all know that Cheney has never engaged in any hanky panky with his former employer.
Umm, yes but isn't Jeremy Legett (CEO of Solar Century, interviewed on your pages recently) also ex-oil?
reminds me a bit of Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies...
"I don't know how to view this. After all, he is the "former" CEO right? Who better to know all the ins and outs of the oil industry?"
I think that, since oil is a finite resource likely to become too expensive to use in the near future, the experts on the panel should be exploring stuff relevant to the future, not the past. There should be transport economists, consumer psychologists, ergonomics specialists with expertise in climate control and lighting, and maybe some mathematicians who could model their speculations.
Raymond does know a lot about energy distribution, but I bet his ex-underlings know a helluva lot more. The job of the CEO is to line up capital, not actually run the company.