Changing Of The Guard At ExxonMobil

The chairman of ExxonMobil, Lee R. Raymond, has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. Kert Davies, research director at Greenpeace U.S.A. told the New York Times that "there is a spectrum of corporate behavior on global warming and Exxon is the epitome of denial and deception. Raymond is unrepentant on global warming and has boxed himself so far in that corner that there's no going back for him." Many conservative groups such as think tanks like the Pacific Research Institute and Frontiers of Freedom will be hoping for little policy change under Raymond's replacement, Rex W. Tillerson, who is currently the company's president. In 2004 ExxonMobil gave $6.4 million from its "public information and policy research" program to groups, many of which promote the views of climate change sceptics.