ExxonMobil Shareholders Power Up Renewables Drive

DALLAS, Texas, May 29, 2002 (ENS) – A broad coalition of ExxonMobil investors has won more votes than ever before for a resolution asking the corporation to adopt a renewable energy resources plan. While the resolution was not passed at the company's annual general meeting here Wednesday, it was approved by the holders of 20.3 percent of current shares, representing more than $55 billion worth of stock.

The level of support was more than twice the 8.9 percent the same resolution achieved in 2001. It was intended as a challenge to the company’s longstanding denial of the effects of global warming which is linked to emissions from the burning of oil, gas and coal - all ExxonMobil products.

ExxonMobil drilling rig in China (Photo courtesy ExxonMobil)

Religious shareholders were joined by socially responsible investors, public pension fund representatives including the New York City Firefighters Pension Fund, and descendants of the individuals who helped build Exxon.

The CERES Coalition, which helped found Campaign ExxonMobil, played a crucial role in building support for the campaign and developing the financial arguments buttressing the resolution.

Peter Altman, national coordinator of Campaign ExxonMobil said, "Mainstream investors are questioning whether ExxonMobil is really protecting shareholder value with its isolated position on renewable energy and global warming. For the first time mainstream investors are saying that they need to see the rationale behind the company's strategy of saying 'just trust us and don't ask questions’ isn't going to work anymore.”

ExxonMobil's Vice President for Investor Relations Pat Mulva defended the corporate position on renewable energy. "With respect to the renewables proposal," he said, "the company continues to be actively engaged in these issues; to develop new, better, and cleaner products and technologies; to improve the environmental performance of its operations; and to keep its shareholders and others informed of its views and actions."

Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO (Photo courtesy ExxonMobil)

The ISS report says, "The company has been subject to controversy stemming from its stance on global warming and its lack of investment in the development of renewable energy sources.”

"It is not clear to us why ISS has changed their recommendation on these repeat proposals this year," Mulva said. "However, I can assure you that from ExxonMobil's perspective nothing has changed that would warrant a change in vote."

"For too long ExxonMobil has refused to dialogue in a meaningful way on this issue," said Reverend Michael Crosby, the stockholder responsible for filing the renewable energy resolution. "Now the question becomes, how many investors will it take to prod this company forward before it responds?"

In an effort to prod ExxonMobil in the direction of renewable energy, the Climate Justice Summit has been underway in Dallas for the past week. Organized by local non-profit organization PressurePoint, and supported by Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the summit included dozens of demonstrations, education rallies, a forum for international community leaders, a mock ExxonMobil trial, and a rally today outside the shareholder meeting.

Demonstration today outside the ExxonMobil annual general meeting (Photo courtesy Campaign ExxonMobil)

The visiting group consisted of six people from communities damaged by ExxonMobil. Juanita Stewart came from Baton Rouge, Louisiana where residents living around an ExxonMobil refinery are low income people of color experiencing high levels of respiratory illnesses, cancer and other health problems.

From the Arctic Circle came Gwich’In elder Sarah James, who described how ExxonMobil's oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would endanger the Gwich'in who rely on the caribou herds that breed on the coastal plain.

Armando Perez is from Colombia, where ExxonMobil is the majority owner in El Cerrejon Norte, the world's largest open pit coal mine, which is being expanded on Wayuu indigenous land. Last August, at the behest of ExxonMobil, the Colombian military forcibly removed his community, bulldozing homes to make way for the mine’s expansion.

Russian lawyer Diana Tarasevich from Sakhalin Island told how ExxonMobil’s oil exploration has resulted in rapidly declining fish and whale populations. The situation reached explosive proportions Tuesday when a Russian Coast Guard captain hit with a Molotov cocktail was burned to death for restricting fisherman from overharvesting the depleted fishing grounds.

From the Pacific Ocean island of Tuvalu, Catherine McMullen, a geomorphologist and global warming impacts specialist said her country faces the threat of complete submersion as global warming causes sea levels to rise. Tuvalu has appealed to other countries to help in a full scale evacuation of the population.

Ladhon Tethong, a Tibetan, spoke about ExxonMobil’s proposed partnership in the West- East pipeline which would displace native Tibetan and Uighur native peoples from their homeland in Chinese-occupied Tibet and East Turkestan.

In a Dallas media briefing Tuesday, Chris Doran, PressurePoint director said, “Most U.S. consumers don’t see the human and ecological consequences of our cheap gasoline, natural gas and coal. But to the international community representatives who are here in Dallas to tell their stories, those consequences are a painful fact of day to day life."

"By uniting against the excesses of ExxonMobil," he said, "we take a stand against unbridled corporate power, the subversion of democracy, human rights abuses, and the attempted ecocide of our very planet.”

Doran said, “ExxonMobil cannot continue to deny the overwhelming scientific evidence that global warming is predominantly caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Yet it continues to intentionally sabotage international efforts to address it.”

Power plant in Ohio emits greenhouse gases linked to global warming (Photo courtesy Ohio Environmental Council)

Mansley points out positive steps company management could take to reduce emissions and risks while, at the same time, protecting shareholder value.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil's competitors such as Shell and BP have created corporate divisions dedicated to renewable energy products. Shell Renewables, developing commercial opportunities in solar and wind energy, has purchased wind farms in Texas and California.

BP Solar today announced it will build China's largest solar photovoltaic on-grid system to power Shenzhen's Citizen Center, a new building with a museum, a library, an exhibition center and conference facilities.

"This is the year that the campaign against ExxonMobil on global warming truly achieved critical mass," said Sister Patricia Daly of the Catholic Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment. "We are now positioned as never before to move out to bring new and important pressure on ExxonMobil to face the facts about climate change. I have never been so encouraged about our prospects. We expect to see more new faces among institutional investors brought into our ranks in 2003 and beyond."