SEC, Now Packed With Trumpies, Blocks Nearly 45% Of Shareholder Climate Resolutions
Investors' efforts to get energy and utility companies to set greenhouse gas reduction targets and disclose their plans for meeting those goals are facing more hurdles now than in the past five years.
Nearly two-thirds of the climate-related shareholder resolutions filed with publicly held energy and utility companies this year have been contested before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency now dominated by appointees of President Donald Trump who appear more sympathetic to the fossil fuel industry.
So far this year, the SEC has sustained 45 percent of the challenges, the highest percentage in the last five years. Exxon, Chevron and Devon Energy have all succeeded with arguments that some shareholder proposals infringe on the companies' oversight of everyday business operations. The SEC concluded that forcing the companies to comply with the demands would be micromanaging.
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Exxon persuaded the SEC to block the shareholder resolution seeking greenhouse gas reduction targets by also arguing that the resolution sought to micromanage the company. "In our view, the proposal would require the company to adopt targets aligned with the goals established by the Paris climate agreement," an SEC lawyer told Exxon officials. "By imposing this requirement, the proposal would micromanage the company by seeking to impose specific methods for implementing complex policies in place of the ongoing judgments of management as overseen by its board of directors."
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01052019/shareholder-resolution-climate-change-sec-challenge-micromanage-trump
