One of the largest investment funds in the U.S. intends on pushing and prodding energy companies like ExxonMobil into disclosing how man-made global warming could affect their business.
Vanguard Group, a mutual fund that manages more than $4 trillion, is pushing to pass several shareholder resolutions on climate change at big energy firms. The group argues that the mission is based on economics, not ideology, even though the decision was made after investor complaints.
The fund has historically shied away from pushing companies on accepting climate policies, but Vanguard’s investment stewardship officer told reporters Monday that the shareholders have supposedly evolved on the issue.
“Our support for these proposals is not a matter of ideology, it’s a matter of economics,” said Glenn Booraem, who oversees the group’s corporate governance program. “To the extent there are significant risks to a company’s long-term value proposition, we want to make sure there is long-term disclosure of those risks to the market.”
Vanguard floated a proposal earlier this year forcing Exxon to measure how regulations affect the company’s oil assets. The measure is receiving intense scrutiny from shareholders who worry Exxon could get wobbly-kneed in the face of the environmentalist push.
Some analysts believe the push shows how powerful investors and money managers have on energy companies. Exxon opposed the measure, but shareholders supported the resolution during a financial meeting in May.
More than 60 percent of investors voted in support of the proposal — a similar proposal gained 38 percent support last year.
Jeff Woodbury, the company’s vice president, wrote several letters to shareholders Tuesday suggesting that “the corporation agrees with the underlying objective – we just have a different view on the best means to achieve it.”
Read more at Daily Caller
Are these useful idiots being bused around by the Sierra Club? just like they did during the Redwood Summer
I knew there was a reason I don’t give a penny of investment money to
Vanguard Group . Climate changes with or without aid from humans , thankfully it is in a long term warming cycle . So get over it Vanguard .
Why not put out a disclosure statement Vanguard that your absurd fee’s will destroy investor earnings . There something measurable
and not politically correct whipped cream . Grow up .
Politically Correct pressure groups are coercing local politicians to remove Civil War monuments. Meanwhile governments kowtow to environmentalists by erecting wind turbines . The idea that these monoliths will be the salvation of Earth is blatant brainwashing.
There’s a war going on. Mind control has made a comeback with a younger generation that doesn’t recognize it.
It would be a good idea for these companies to list the climate change impact based on true science. The one degree C increase since the start of the industrial revolution isn’t enough to impact anything, so that cost is zero. There hasn’t been an increase in extreme weather events, so that cost is zero.
In the future there will probably be a cost. According to the German study at:
https://climatechangedispatch.com/new-study-by-german-physicists-concludes-we-can-expect-climate-cooling-for-next-50-years/
there will be cooling, and that should involve some cost.
I just realized that I was wrong, companies to face costs from climate change and that is happening right now. The climate change movement has forced the use of wind and solar energy, which is more expensive. The same is true for everyone. My electric rate just went up 15% due to the mandate that my utility use more renewable energy. This cost should be clearly stated in any report.