When President Obama appointed William K Reilly as Co-Chair of his Oil Spew Commission, Reilly reluctantly took a leave of absence from the ConocoPhillips board of directors. ConocoPhillips 2011 DEF 14-A stated:
As a consequence of his leave of absence, Mr. Reilly received no compensation during the period from July 2010 through December 2010.Oddly, Reilly received the highest tax reimbursement of any board member in 2010.
The amounts shown are for payments by the Company relating to certain taxes incurred by the director. These primarily occur when the Company requests spouses or other guests to accompany the director to Company functions, including Board and Committee meetings, and as a result, the director is deemed to make a personal use of Company assets (for example, when a spouse accompanies a director on a Company aircraft). In such circumstances, if the director is imputed income in accordance with the applicable tax laws, the Company will generally reimburse the director for the increased tax costs.How does a board member taking half a year off get the largest tax subsidy from the company for personal use of corporate assets? At a 35% tax rate, which people like Reilly rarely pay, ConocoPhillips gave William Reilly nearly $20,000 in use of corporate assets.
Did any trips have to do with keeping the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska open for drilling? ConcoPhillips' website states:
ConocoPhillips plans further appraisal of the Poseidon discovery in the Browse Basin, offshore Australia, and the Tiber and Shenandoah discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico.
The company also plans to test material prospects in the Gulf of Mexico and Kazakhstan.
Reilly did his job, given the Gulf of Mexico is going whole hog, a mere twenty months after the Deepwater Horizon turned into a hellish fireball and nineteen months after Reilly's co-chair appointment. The oilgasm is back on track.
