Earth Equity News

Shareholders Challenge Big Oil Efforts to Kill California Climate Law. ClimateBiz, 10/14/10. “Shareholders have filed resolutions with three oil companies asking for their respective boards of directors to review political spending and policies in light of their support for overturning California's climate change law. Occidental Petroleum, Valero Energy and Tesoro have collectively poured millions of dollars into the campaign for Proposition 23, which would suspend the Global Warming and Solutions Act of 2006, also known as AB 32, until the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5% for lower for one year. Unemployment in the nation's most populous state now stands at above 12%.

“The Unitarian Universalist Association filed the resolution with Valero, while the Nathan Cummings Foundation was the primary filer in the Tesoro resolution. Green Century Capital Management filed the resolution with Occidental. ‘That Valero and the other companies are using company money for such overt political purposes is both inappropriate and reflects poor governance. Beyond stifling California's fast-growing clean tech economy, rolling back this law will delay the nation's much needed transition to a clean energy economy and greater energy independence,’ Mindy Lubber, president of the nonprofit Ceres, and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, said in a statement Wednesday.”