Lee Raymond....not all dinosaurs die....

....some of them retire.

The last of a breed, CEO of ExxonMobile Lee Raymond, announced his retirement last week. Right to the end he denied peak oil and global warming while his peers in the oil industry had embraced reality. David Roberts of Grist Magazine remembers Mr Raymond in his eulogy for a living dinosaur.

Lee, we barely knew ye.

Oh, wait, yes we did.

[....]

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 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.

But as you said, "the mainstream of some so-called environmentalists or politically correct Europeans isn't the mainstream of all scientists or the White House."

Oh, wait, we're getting a bulletin ... one sec ... OK, looks like you lost the White House.

But you're right about "all scientists" -- there are some scientists certain that rising carbon-dioxide levels are peachy. You probably recognize them from your payroll (and speaking of your payroll -- a big welcome to Philip Cooney!).

Finally, of course, your integrity on the subject of clean renewable li'l energy technologies is impeccable. While competitors like BP plow money into solar and wind research, you rely on wisdom that's had some time to ferment: "We're resting our views on the conclusions we came to in 1980, that they're uneconomic."

Lee Raymond is one dinosaur the world will be much better off without.

Hat tip to Peak Energy(Australia)