By SCOTT GRABER
BEAUFORT TODAY

Last month we learned that Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and others-- sometimes called ‘Big Oil’-- raked-in $36 billion in profit during the first three months of this year.

Somehow I thought there might be some embarrassment on the part of Big Oil. For some reason I thought there might be some contrition because of the widespread “pain at the pump.”

American Airlines, for example, is parking some of its regional jets and pushing some of its employees into early, involuntary retirement. Ford is shutting down production lines. Long distance truckers are putting second mortgages on their homes in order to top off their fuel-hungry rigs.

Right here in Beaufort County, shrimpers are wondering if they should leave the dock. If they choose to venture into the Sound — and don’t catch any shrimp -- they could find themselves in bankruptcy.

In an effort to better understand this situation I met with my friend Charlie Peyton, who was president of Exxon International between 1972 and 1977. Charlie began by telling me that a big part of the problem is supply.

“There is oil out there but for environmental reasons, it can’t be pumped. We should be drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.”

Charlie says that if we drilled in the refuge - and just off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts - there would be plenty of “supply.”

Charlie also told me speculators are driving up the cost of a barrel of crude to $135. He said our weak dollar doesn’t buy as much as it used to. He said $36 billion may look like a big number to you but it’s really a small number when compared with our pharmaceutical friends.

The boys over at Big Pharma are making 25.3 cents on every dollar of revenue and cigarette makers are getting 15.7 cents. This compares with 9.8 cents that Big Oil gets from every dollar of revenue.

OK, I guess I understand. But, still, I have a thing about $36 billion in profit when my shrimper friends can’t afford to leave the dock. It doesn’t seem right for one company — actually several oil companies -- to make this much money when many other Americans are in serious trouble.

But I’ve always been a little soft-headed when it comes to capitalism, profit and free enterprise. I’ve always thought economic disparity of this caliber is what started the French and Russian revolutions and the hording of huge wealth by small, champagne-sipping elites is responsible for the on-going unhappiness in Africa.

But enough of these Trotskyite mutterings.

Charlie reminded me of the oil crisis in 1972 when our Arab friends decided to turn off the spigot. He told me in 1972 Americans, for the first time, bought smaller, fuel efficient cars. Unfortunately for Detroit automakers, Americans bought Toyotas, Hondas and their better-built kindred from the Japanese.

Charlie said this crisis could lead us away from our lumbering Tahoes and Tundras back to something smaller — perhaps a hybrid. He said a few people in Beaufort County might actually take the bus. He said Americans might become more conservation minded and, eventually, the price of oil could come down.

In the United States profit — even huge profit — is a pillar of capitalism. We don’t complain when somebody like Bill Gates makes immense, immeasurable profit.
(And, of course, it helps when somebody like Bill Gates appears to be giving that profit back to people in Africa.) But that assumes that the rest of us are healthy and happy and bringing back a modest return on our own labor.

That, Big Oil should discern, is not now the case.

Scott Graber is a long-time Port Royal resident and practices law in Beaufort. He can be reached via e-mail at ssgraber@charter.net