Lee Hugger  

Grist pays tribute to retiring ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond. So - what are the odds that Lee will follow Lord Oxburgh's example and go and work for an activist organisation to combat global warming ?

What impresses above all is your consistency. You joined Exxon in 1963, and no matter what challenges you faced -- being promoted to president in 1987, chair/CEO in 1993, and chair/CEO of the merged ExxonMobil in 1999; presiding over record-high oil prices and company profits; being compensated to the tune of $42 million in 2005 -- you remained true-blue to the company that took you in as a homeless young chemical engineer with nothing to your name but the clothes on your back and a dream of world domination.

You have remained like unto a mighty rock, unswayed by passing fads and fashions.

When the Exxon Valdez oil tanker dumped around 11 million gallons of crude on Prince William Sound, then-CEO Lawrence Rawl said he was "too busy" to visit the site.

But not you! You, then president, took over the company's response. When a court demanded Exxon pay $4.5 billion to the Valdez victims bellyachers, you put money aside while you fought the judgment in court. Meanwhile, that money makes on the order of $800 million a year in interest. That's serious ROI! Sixteen years later you still haven't double hulled your Alaskan tankers, and really, why would you?

When fair-weather friends BP and ConocoPhillips dropped out of Arctic Power, the lobbying group you spearheaded to push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Opportunity Refuge -- perhaps swayed by radical lefty arguments that extracting oil from the refuge would involve a barely recoupable investment and have negligible impact on U.S. foreign-oil dependence -- you stood fast.

Let other corporations kowtow to overwhelming public sentiment; you understand that the continued existence of a piece of undrilled land is an offense to America. Is drilling what we do or is it not? Exactly.

Consistency has also guided you on the subject of global warming climate change snuggling up to the global fire with a nice cup of cocoa. One by one, your inferiors have fled to the alleged mainstream scientific consensus that greenhouse gases are causing atmospheric havoc.

Global demand for photovoltaic panels is causing months-long delays and price hikes for would-be buyers in the U.S. American suppliers blame a weak dollar, shortages of raw materials, and swelling demand both at home and abroad. The worldwide solar-power market has grown about 40 percent annually in the last five years -- driven largely by Germany, where an incentive program allows businesses and individuals to sell excess solar-generated electricity back to utilities at a premium rate. Germany consumes 39 percent of the available solar-panel supply, followed by Japan at 30 percent.