Big Oil Chairman Retires, Buys Moon

Well, this is just awesome. Right as already-high gas prices are perched for another quantum leap, Exxon's Chairman Lee Raymond, whose company was perched atop the Fortune 500 list, retires, receiving the most ludicrously lucrative retirement package in the history of our galaxy. $400 Million bucks. The dude makes $6000 an hour. He makes in an HOUR retired what I make working in just under two months. Which - you know what? - is fine. I don't mind that smart, driven people make bucket-loads of money. Good for them. And good for us because we all theoretically have that same opportunity to make as much as our minds and bodies are able. But when those riches come so heavily from my pockets through astronomical prices, that hurts.

"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified.

Well, that's great. I didn't realize we were all in this together. Looks like my boy Lee's gonna help me out with my gas bills and groceries. Maybe let me borrow his private jet for a spin.

Since we're in this together.

But I don't blame big oil. Not primarily, anyway. Our government should do a little stepping in. And yes, I'm an anti-big-government guy, but this is too big for the people/market to correct themselves. Oil is a commodity that is the lifeblood of everything we do as a modern society, from transportation and trade to comfort and protection.

Last week, Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter proposed legislation that would increase regulatory scrutiny of Big Oil. But that's not enough. Our representatives in government (from both major parties) need to do a better job raising fuel-efficiency standards, pushing alternative fuel resarch and implementation, and promoting public education of fuel economy.