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Exxon facing shareholder revolt over approach to climate change
Andrew Clark, Guardian
A shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil led by the billionaire Rockefeller family has won the support of four significant British institutional investors who will call on Monday for a shakeup in the governance of the world’s biggest oil company.
Guardian.co.uk has learned that F&C Asset Management, Morley Fund Management, the Co-Operative Insurance Society and the West Midlands Pension Fund are throwing their weight behind a resolution demanding that ExxonMobil appoints an independent chairman to stimulate debate on the company’s board.
Exxon is facing a rebellion from its investors over its hardline approach to global warming. The firm has refused to follow rival oil companies in committing large-scale capital investment to environmentally friendly technology such as wind and solar power.
(19 May 2008)
Drilling for Defeat?
David Sirota, New York Times
Nearly two decades ago, Republicans won the West by linking Democrats to environmentalists, who supposedly cared more for the spotted owl and other favored species than they did for the jobs of loggers or miners. But now, as a boom in natural-gas drilling reshapes the region, Western Democrats have found success recasting environmentalism as a defense of threatened water supplies, fishing spots and hunting grounds. As a result, the party may hold the advantage this fall in the region’s key Congressional races. The simultaneous rise of Western energy production and the Western Democrat is no coincidence.
The Rocky Mountain drilling boom has been aided by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which was once considered a partisan political masterstroke. In providing incentives for energy development, Republicans delivered a profitable gift to an industry that directs most of its campaign contributions to G.O.P. candidates. That gift was sweetened by the Bureau of Land Management, which, under President Bush, has expanded the amount of federal land open to energy development and increased the number of drilling permits.
But the acceleration of energy exploration has split the national Republican Party from local Republicans upset by the downsides of the energy boom. “Republicans created a monster for themselves,” said Rick Ridder, a Colorado-based Democratic consultant. “They put public policy in direct conflict with their base voters.”
(18 May 2008)
Energy seeks a boom in youth
L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle
Industry touts altruism as it tries to attract engineering talent
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… During the next decade, more than half of the energy industry’s employees are expected to retire, said Peter Robinson, vice chairman of Chevron, who was in Houston this spring to give a speech at Microsoft’s Global Energy Forum.
But replacing the experienced work force isn’t so easy – particularly scientists and engineers. Their starting salaries are high, and that’s largely because there still aren’t enough of them.
Last year’s Rice University graduates with bachelor’s degrees in engineering got average offers of $72,029, according to data provided by the university.
One impediment to the energy industry’s effort to attract qualified graduates has been its boom and bust cycle, said Dina Pyron, a Houston native whose parents worked in the energy industry.
When the industry slumps, companies are quick to pass out pink slips, as they did during the big energy bust of the 1980s, when oil plunged from more than $30 a barrel to less than half that.
(17 May 2008)
