When Big Oil Does Good Things

Murphy Oil Gives Every High School Graduate In One Town $6,000 A Year For College

(CBS)  Just like first graders anywhere, the kids in El Dorado, Ark., have started thinking about the big question.

"What do you want to be, Allison, when you grow up?" CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger asked.

"Half veterinarian, half artist," Allison said.

But unlike most first graders outside El Dorado, when it comes time to pick a college that teaches half-veterinarians-half-artists, Allison's tuition will be paid for by … the oil company just down the road.

Yes, that's right. Murphy Oil, a Fortune 200 company. Its CEO, Claiborne Deming, decided the kids needed help.

"So I thought, dad-gum it, we need to do something," Deming said.

And dad-gum-it if he didn't find $50 million to make a promise to the people of this small town.

So, every kid who goes through the El Dorado School system and graduates from the high school will be given $6,000 a year for up to five years to help pay for college.

"We want you to go to college anywhere you can," Deming said. "Here's $6,000. And if you go to an Arkansas public school, it's free."

Six grand will cover the entire annual tuition bill at Arkansas' public universities.

Murphy Oil will spend the $50 million over 20 years.

"We are quite a large company in a small community so we can have a very immediate and real impact that we can see and we can see it pretty quickly," Deming said.

The promise to help pay tuition has paid off in more ways than one.

In the last year, people have moved here from 25 states, the town voted to tax itself to build a new high school, and, while home values might be in free fall where you are, they're not here.

In fact house prices in El Dorado shot up almost 33 percent in one month. Martin and Maxine Crawford moved here from Memphis with their six daughters.

"When they explained what the Promise was, it was a slam-dunk for us," Martin Crawford said. "Oh that was definitely the closer."

Oil companies aren't normally seen as the good guys.

In El Dorado, A little pain at the pump is the price of admission to a future that might otherwise be beyond reach.

[dobbershome]

Murphy Oil can you send me some $$? $10,000 would work. I promise I will only say good things about your company for at least a year.Thanks

[fishinfool43]

This is almost comical. A nice big fat writeoff to hide another record breaking profit. If they are doing this to try to make them look better, it isn''t working for me. Why don''t they do that every quarter for the next 10 years. Still won''t change my mind about them. One good thing is that alot of kids will get help with their education. Kids, get your education, for you are the future, and learn from their mistakes.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "Oil companies aren''t normally seen as the good guys."

We can be sure that this meager donation did not significantly reduce the compensation of this Corporate executive pirate.

Disgusting Corporations such as petro-terrorists and other war profiteers are always trying to buy "good will" in an effort to mitigate their crimes and abuses.

Shame on CBS Newz for helping them.

[messiahx4eve]

I''m sure Hitler did a few good things in his time as did other members of the Nazi party, So did Judas and Hussien, as did various members of the Donner party. Al Capone threw lavish parties for the poor of Chicago, Ma Barker was a loving mother, even Ed Gein probably held a door or two for some folks, and lets not forget John Wayne Gacy who''s character Pogo the clown entertained many a hospital ward of children but the Oil companies??? The ONLY good thing I can hope from them is when the end of the world comes.....they are the last to go and may it take YEARS to happen.

[downsteamjim]

Hey messiah: What is with the last to die business? We need to let oil companies find oil. If you have a plan to run car economically and without hydrocarbons, you will be one rich man.
P.S. I am surpised Obama has time to blog.

[fishinfool43]

only the good ones will be the last to be here in the end, so they will be long gone by then

[fishinfool43]

hey downsteamjim,
how big was the one you turned back for me the other day?

[downsteamjim]

To fishinfool43: Hows the water? A shower caught me before I could go. May try tomorrow. As far as that business of grabbing catfish, not me. A few years back I caught an 85 pound turtle on a trot line. He bit my boat paddle and split it in two. We managed to get several gallons of meat. Turtle is the best.

[fishinfool43]

I''m going tonite. Great moon and I hear the catfish calling. WE can only use hook and line here but the snappers rock. Makes me hungry just thinking about it

[fishinfool43]

Hey downsteamjim''
check this guy out
http://www.youtube.com/v/Gn8EQ0azXpQ&hl=en"

[downsteamjim]

To fishinfool: Louisiana produces about 80% of the turtle market in the U.S. The problem is that we consume about 90% of the U.S. production. As a result, we import turtle from neighboring states. What''s the bait & do you bank fish or boat?

[downsteamjim]

Dang; Make a Roux & add a little garlic and that chicken might be pretty tasty. I also like tight line fishing from the bank. A nice and easy way to spend the time even if the fish don''t participate.

[fishinfool43]

lol, that does sound good. Just waiting for the son to get home from a baseball game and hoping to get him hooked up with a nice 30" channel cat, then watch the fun. I live about 1/4 mile from a nice 1000 acre natural lake thats just loaded with them

[downsteamjim]

f43: Good luck. That is a good father son pastime. My son and I do that & also look for arrowheads [my true passion]. I hope his team does better than LSU did last night.

[fishinfool43]

dsj,
thats how I got started. Spent many many hours with my dad fishing, just wish he was still here to see his grandson keep rubbin my face in the 2 pound black crappie he caucht a few weeks ago. His team is 5-2 hoping for 6-2.

[downsteamjim]

to f43: Amen. A two pounder would bake good. Got to go to bed, work sometimes gets in the way of fishing.

[fishinfool43]

dsj,
thats why I missed his game tonite, that nasty 4 letter word called work. Have a great night my friend. will let one go for ya.

[standlee5]

What a nice fellow Claiborne Deming. Some of the filthy rich golden parachute CEO''s that swoop in and rape and pillage companies should read this article. These are the people we should publicly praise as to draw contrast to the less generous greedy types.

[dobbershome]

Well they did do a good thing.They are on a limited budget people and can only afford so much. jeez

[liberate40]

Whenever a gallon of gas goes up another dollar, this oil company should raise its college grant by $1,000 per year to the high school graduates. The rise in gas prices also raises food prices, ehich is forcing people to hold back on other major expenses, such as college tuition.

[feelfree4u]

Surely even the blood-drenched oil pirates at Exxon-Mobil hand out a few meager crumbs now and then, of the billion$ and billion$ of war profiteering booty that they have plundered.

[juwboy]

Surely, the fleshpots in the royal family of Saudi Arabia, who preside over a "legal" system where the female VICTIMS of gang rapes are sentenced to 100 lashes from a bull-whip, could hand out a few meager crumbs from the billions in bribes that U.S. and European companies have been forced to hand over to them in order to secure contracts.

[prairiefox1]

GEE! THAT IS NICE! RIP OFF ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS AS YOU DO IN OKLAHOMA AT YOUR MURPHY GAS STATIONS AND GIVE SOME OF IT TO YOUR ONE TOWN! INSTEAD OF THINKING THAT HE IS SO GOOD FOR DOING THIS YOU SHOULD BE THANKING THE ONES ROBBED TO MAKE THAT 6000 PER PERSON POSSABLE! WE THE CUSTOMERS ARE PAYING FOR IT ! NOT THAT JERK!

[rf35]

This is funny! CBS, you do have a sense of humor. Nice use of sarcasm in the headline. Well, I guess I''ll boycott Murphy now. No problem, since I don''t usually buy their gas anyway. Any company that tries such a transparent tactic is not worthy of further thought.

[prairiefox1]

BOYCOTT MURPHY OIL UNTIL THEY START THIS PROGRAM IN YOUR TOWN!

[noloyalisti]

I guess where the government fails, fascist corporations must step in and help. That is the Ray Gun and GOP neo con legacy for America. Now we just need to tax the living heck out of the larger ones like Exxon and Chevron so we can pay for their wars.

[mjvw2]

"Now we just need to tax the living heck out of the larger ones like Exxon and Chevron so we can pay for their wars."
posted by noloyalisti

Never took Econ 101 noloyalisti? Companies don''t pay taxes, people do. Think before you speak.

[tulcak]

Nice picture of kids in a classroom. Our continued addiction to this dirty energy resource endangers the future of these kids; for us all. There is nothing "good" about oil. We need to STOP all drilling of oil. We need to STOP all consumption of oil. Oil is bad for our national security, bad for our environment, and bad for our economy. This is the truth that the oil business is trying to cover with their filthy smokescreen.

[tulcak]

Never took Econ 101 noloyalisti? Companies don''''t pay taxes, people do. Think before you speak.
Posted by mjvw2
--------------------------
well, you took idiot 101, legally, companies are defined as individuals and companies DO pay taxes you moron. ever own a business? did your business pay taxes? of course it did... now, go away...

[blackyowe]

Big deal they all do more damage than good and are recordinging record profits.

[blackyowe]

Big deal they all do more damage than good and are recordinging record profits.

[faith_in_w]

Oh arent they wonderful?

[bretster7]

nancy naive said,
Murphy Oil Gives Every High School Graduate In One Town $6,000 A Year For College... Hmmmm.

Exxon... on scedule for $44,000,000,000 in profits this year...

Hmmm, at $6,000 per student, that''''s 7,000,000 students...

Regards,



Good point. How about Harvard who has a TAX EXEMPT endowment, that yialds about 18-21% per year.
At that yield this TAX EXEMPT endowment makes around 8 Billion dollars in interest, or enough to put around 25,000 students (Harvards annual enrollment)through college.
Do they dothis? No they complain about costs and raise their tuition by about 20% per year.
Does any body complain about the excessive profits of "Big Education"? No, of course not, Harvard and all theother overy wealthy schools are of the leftist bent, so of course they are not going to be demonized inany way

[blackyowe]

Big deal they all do more damage than good and are recordinging record profits.

[blackyowe]

Big deal they all do more damage than good and are recordinging record profits.

[mitsword]

This is a small but positive first step to depressurizing the big-oil bubble, and a means to resolve the national crisis of school aid. Now if the big guys like Exxon-Mobil, BP, etc., pick up the ball and run with it, our schools might get back to the basics of educating our kids before we''re doomed to become a third-class nation ruled by foreign nationals whose intent it to destroy us from within by draining our economy. James Carville had it right when he stated "It''s the economy, stupid!" The world revolves around the highest monetary exchange rate, whether the dollar, euro, or other value. It''s well past time to wake up and realize the almighty dollar isn''t so almighty any more thanks to any number of factors. While you were sleeping...

Oh, but wait! George 2 has challenged the Dems to cease resistance to offshore drilling so the big global conglomerates can tap the rest of the financial reserves of our once-great nation. Nice move, Bushy! Could it be the prelude to Shock and Awe, part 2?

I''m no financial wizard; this is Economics 101. During the past 50 years plus, I''ve maintained a comfortable debt-free lifestyle by living within my means, paying as I go to provide myself security in my senior years. My major concern now it that the political idiots have destroyed the basis for that security. And I have lots of company out here, hoping that security isn''t drained before my life is finished. It''s a *** shoot!