Straddling the 49th Parallel; Exxon tops Fortune 500 list

Here’s one for the oddity file: an American fighting for Canada in Washington.

That’s roughly where Tom Huffaker finds himself these days.

After serving as United States consul general for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories and about to join the Washington-based National War College (a U.S. government program for training military and foreign-service staff), his career path veered in another direction.

Huffaker has landed a job as vice president, policy and environment, with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the industry’s chief lobby group, which represents 130 companies.

His broad assignment will be strategic policy development in a grab bag of areas, such as climate change, environment, federal regulatory reform, fiscal matters, safety and environmental stewardship and aboriginal affairs.

While based in Calgary he will travel to Washington frequently “working on files that are central to the oil and gas industry’s ability to contribute to Canada’s economic resiliency and long-term growth, provide a safe and secure energy supply and find ways to provide policy leadership on critical environmental issues.”

“The industry is facing a complex range of issues in a rapidly changing economic and political environment and I have a great respect for the people at CAPP today and those who’ve come before me,” he said in a release.

Huffaker believes strongly that “there is a tremendous alignment between the interests of the Canadian oil and gas industry and the long-term best interests of the U.S.”

He will be “very happy to argue in the halls of Washington that while we need to make progress on climate change, we need to be very careful about not doing it in a way that injures America’s largest energy relationship … with people in Canada who are reliable, who keep their promises, who follow through on the environmental commitments they make.”

Huffaker will head up a team that will closely track policy developments in both countries, paying especially close attention to where the administration of President Barack Obama moves on energy and environmental legislation and making sure the Canadian industry’s viewpoint is understood as U.S. lawmakers enter the climate-change debate.

CAPP President David Collyer said Huffaker brings a “well-informed and unique set of skills, understanding and experience to policy development during a period of significant transition for our industry. …”

He said Huffaker’s experience on both sides of the border will help Canadians move forward on three fronts: environment, energy and the economy.

—Gary Park

Exxon Mobil tops 2009 Fortune 500 list

Fortune’s closely watched list, released April 19, ranked companies by their revenue in 2008. Irving, Texas-based Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19 percent from 2007. The company also raked in the biggest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart had held the top spot for six of the last seven years but fell to No. 2 this year. Still, the retail giant’s 2008 revenue climbed 7 percent to $405.6 billion, as the battered economy sent more consumers searching for bargains. The world’s largest retailer took in $13.4 billion in annual profit, an increase of about 5 percent.

Although it may have been a good year for Exxon and Wal-Mart, 2008 was far from rosy for most of remaining companies on the list. Overall earnings plunged 85 percent to $98.9 billion from $645 billion in 2007, the biggest one-year decline in the 55-year history of the Fortune 500 list.

“America is getting used to the sound of bubbles bursting,” Fortune said.

Energy companies continued to dominate many of the top positions, as last summer’s skyrocketing oil and gas prices more than compensated for their plunge later that fall. Chevron Corp. held on to third place with $263.16 billion in revenue, up 25 percent. ConocoPhillips climbed one place to fourth, with $230.76 billion in revenue.

Telecom giant AT&T Inc. moved up two notches to take eighth place.

Engineering and construction company URS Corp. moved the most up the list, leaping 185 spots to No. 264. But the title of “biggest loser” went to AIG Corp. The insurer, which has received more than $180 billion in government bailout aid since last fall, fell 232 spots to 245 in this year’s ranking.

—The Associated Press