Every winter diesel prices go up and I hear the excuse about heating oil.
I don't buy that excuse. It's not like winter comes as a surprise. It comes around the same time every year. Doesn't anyone in the fuel industry have a calendar? Just put a reminder in the square for October 1 that reads: Make more diesel since it will be cold soon.
I'm a strong believer that diesel is more expensive because of greed. Below is an article about Exxon's CEO retiring with his big bundle of cash. How hard is it to be a CEO of company that sells a product everyone wants and needs and will pay just about anything to get? Tough job. I'm sure it requires playing a lot of golf with political types.
I think the free market system is the best thing out there but how much money does one man need? Greed.
ExxonMobil CEO will pocket half a billion
By Brett Arends
Friday, August 5, 2005
While you stand at the gas pump today, paying $2.37 or more for a gallon of regular unleaded, spare a thought for the chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil.
Lee Raymond just announced he's going to retire – with more than half a billion bucks.
How's that for executive compensation?
He's 67. He'll hand over power at the end of the year, probably to his No. 2, Rex Tillerson.
Stock market experts were yesterday asking: why now?
Among the possibilities: it allows Raymond to cash in on Exxon's soaring stock price to the tune of an extra $160 million.
Raymond's extraordinary fortune is detailed on pages 12 through 22 of the company's last proxy statement.
He owns 3.1 million common shares. At $58.52, last night's closing price, those are worth $181 million.
He also owns 2.7 million ``restricted'' shares. A company spokeswoman yesterday confirmed those were in addition to his common shares, and that Raymond's retirement allow him to cash them in.
Their value: $159 million.
He also holds 4.85 million stock options. At $51.26 a share, on Dec. 31, they were worth $65.8 million. That's since risen, with the share price, to $100.2 million.
Oh yes, and he has an $81.3 million pension fund, which will pay him $10.2 million a year.
Total value: $521.5 million.
He also cashed out another $44 million worth of options last year.
Raymond ran the company for 12 years.
It isn't as if this kind of corporate largesse was to make up for a shortfall in annual compensation.
Salary and bonus last year: $7.5 million.
And as if all that wasn't enough, there were all the perks.
Exxon paid all his membership fees to private clubs. Those came to a stunning $46,000 last year.
It paid $33,441 to a tax accountant who helped Raymond reduce the amount he'll have to hand over to Uncle Sam.
And he never had to stand in line at an airport or have his bags screened. He flew everywhere, even on personal trips, in private luxury aboard one of the company's planes. Exxon stockholders picked up the tab. His personal plane trips cost $89,246 last year alone.
