A new twist is unfolding in the fight between activist investors and the oil industry: an unprecedented move by federal regulators allowing a major producer to preemptively kill a shareholder resolution on climate change without a vote.
Why it matters: The Securities and Exchange Commission’s support of oil producer EOG Resources is emerging as a flashpoint in what has become America’s central battleground over climate change: what investors do about it. It’s an arcane fight, but a consequential one too, because President Trump is reversing course on climate policy.
The details: Trillium proposed a resolution calling on EOG to set a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. EOG complained to the SEC in late December that the proposal would micromanage the company, calling it a “rigid, time-bound” target, and asked to omit it from consideration.
Responding in late February, the SEC agreed and took a veiled shot at shareholders, implying they don’t know enough to set company policy. The SEC sent another letter last month to Kron’s firm rejecting an appeal request.
EOG is the largest oil producer in Texas, according to state data. It also has operations throughout the U.S. and a few places overseas. Kron, whose firm manages more than $2 billion in investments with a focus on sustainability, said other oil producers, like Hess Corporation, have committed to greenhouse gas reduction targets.
The big picture: The development comes ahead of this year’s annual shareholder meetings that run through spring. Numerous energy companies are expected to face investor votes on non-binding, but symbolically important, climate resolutions in a process known as “shareholder democracy.”
Investors, including large asset managers BlackRock and Vanguard, are putting increasing pressure on fossil-fuel companies to acknowledge the risks climate change pose to their bottom lines.
Greenpeace Go Away,Sierra Club Go Away,NRDC Go Away,EDF Go Away,Earth Justice Go Away,Friends of the Earth Go Away,Center for Biological Diversity Go Away.GREENS GO AWAY
Climate has always changed and a trace gas beneficial to life isn’t
going to override what natural climate variables do to the planet .
What are oil companies supposed to do carve out the fraction of 1 % CO2 and make predictions while natural variables that have dominated climate change for billions of years remain highly uncertain .
Of course climate change is always a risk but what isn’t ?
If governments were really all that worried why do they use and support the use of fossil fuels ? The real issue is how many thousand premature fuel poverty deaths occur every year as a result of foolish government policies ?
Now that is going to be a court case .