Sprinkled with debate over pollution and the company’s human rights record, Exxon Mobil and Chevron’s shareholders rejected all proposals at their annual meetings. Chevron CEO David O’Reilly told one group that its report on Chevron’s policies “deserved the trash can.”
Chevron’s shareholder meeting was much more eventful than Exxon’s as hundreds of protesters gathered outside, blocking the entrance. Protesters claim that Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001, poisoned large areas of rain forest in Ecuador by dumping billions of gallons of waste, causing cancers and birth defects. Chevron said that Texaco spent $40 million on environmental cleanup and had been cleared of liability by the Ecuadorean government.
Proposals at Chevron for say on pay and a more detailed human rights policy were rejected. Exxon’s shareholders rejected a total of 11 resolutions, including separating the roles of chairman and CEO, say on pay, and detailed environmental plans to avoid climate change.
Exxon shareholders took the microphone to both negate the validity of global warming as well as provide support for it.
A rejected proposal asking for a detailed compensation report, presented by Mary Mather from an executive money management firm in Boston, asked why CEO Rex Tillerson’s compensation was so high in 2008. Such a report was voted down with only 11.6 percent voting for the measure and 88.4 percent voting against.