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March 30, 2000
Shareholders Turn up the Heat under ExxonMobil
A coalition of shareholders and consumers is putting the oil company's stand against the validity
of global warming to the test.
SocialFunds.com --
The tiger has been the mascot of Exxon, and its predecessor Esso, for almost a century, a symbol of
rare strength and exotic appeal. Now the biggest of all wild cats is being turned against the oil
giant by Campaign ExxonMobil, which charges that the company's denial of global warming threatens
tigers and countless other endangered species.
 Campaign ExxonMobil (CEM), a coalition of 42 religious
and environmental organizations in 17 states, is committed to pressuring ExxonMobil to reform its
corporate practices that contribute to global warming. Central to the group are 31 religious
institutional shareholders, but the coalition represents the concerns of all stakeholders about
ExxonMobil's unacknowledged responsibility for climate change.
"While many energy and
Fortune 500 companies have acknowledged that global warming is real and are working to address it,
ExxonMobil is keeping its blinders on and clinging to the hope that its political power will
protect it from facing reality", said Peter Altman, national coordinator for CEM.
In the
wake of the warmest decade on record and unanimous scientific opinion on global warming, several
other oil companies have acknowledged the role of fossil fuels in this global threat. BP-Amoco,
Sunoco, and Shell recently left the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), an industry-funded lobbying
group dedicated to stalling action on cutting greenhouse gasses.
ExxonMobil, meanwhile,
shows no sign of rescinding its membership in the GCC, and has in fact invested millions of dollars
in public relations campaigns designed to further confuse the public on the threat of global
warming. Members of the GCC have spent over $65 million in soft money contributions over the last
ten years, and Exxon and Mobil together have funded almost $4.3 million of that effort.
The company has consistently questioned whether global warming exists or whether human factors
contribute to it, and have aggressively promoted more oil consumption around the world. They have
particularly targeted developing countries, which are already clamoring toward urbanization and
unsustainability, in an effort to convince them that they can improve their quality of life by
burning more oil.
"As more and more companies have recognized the threat of global warming
in recent years, ExxonMobil's position has become harder and harder to defend" said Altman. "With
this campaign we aim to remove one of the biggest obstacles to efforts to stop global warming: the
denial, delay, and misinformation of the world's largest energy company, ExxonMobil."
ExxonMobil resulted from the merger of Exxon and Mobil, despite the objections of environmental
and shareholder groups. Although the U.S. Federal Trade Commission initially opposed the merger, a
settlement was reached last November in which the company agreed to divest of 2,431 gas stations
and several other assets within nine months.
The new corporation is expected to have
annual revenues of over $165 billion, according to CEM. It will also be the number one corporate
emitter of greenhouse gases, producing more than 170 million tons of carbon a year, and will
threaten old growth forests, coral reefs, and mangrove ecosystems with its expanded oil exploration
capacity.
Campaign ExxonMobil endorses the shareholder resolution of member religious
groups, asking company management to adopt a policy to promote renewable energy sources such as
farm products, crop wastes, and other organic sources. It will be presented at the annual meeting
in Texas, on May 31, along with resolutions concerning drilling plans in Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge and the proposed Chad-Cameroon pipeline.
"Our faith demands that we act as stewards
of creation, and global warming threatens to destroy it," said Sister Pat Daly of the Dominican
Sisters of New Jersey. "ExxonMobil's position of denial and misinformation on global warming puts
all of creation at risk, and we simply cannot stand by and let them do that."
Attempts at
shareholder dialogue with the company on global warming have been met with steadfast denial, and a
resolution addressing global warming at Exxon in 1998 drew only marginal support. CEM is a case of
concerned shareholders taking their cause beyond the annual meeting, to involve consumers and other
stakeholders in a broad movement.
Campaign ExxonMobil includes a letter-writing scheme,
community meetings about the campaign, consumer advice, and other grassroots initiatives. In
conjunction with shareholder resolutions, the campaign hopes to make the world's biggest oil
company feel the heat for a change.
©
SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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