91% Of Chevron Shareholders Vote To Reject Measures On Environment, Labor, Human Rights - Reuters

[hatrack]

SAN RAMON, Calif. - Chevron Corp. shareholders rejected a proposal requiring it to draft a report on whether laws in countries where the oil and gas producer operates are adequate to protect human health, the environment and its own reputation.

While about 40 demonstrators outside the company's headquarters called on Chevron to protect the environment in oil-producing nations, Chief Executive Dave O'Reilly told the annual meeting on Wednesday that it had done nothing wrong in an environmental dispute in Ecuador.

Trillum Asset Management and other "socially responsible" investment groups had proposed that Chevron submit the report by November. Trillum has submitted proposals on Ecuador for each of the last three annual meetings, and shareholders have turned down all them them, Chevron's proxy statement said.

About 91 percent of shareholder votes cast before the meeting on Wednesday were against the proposal, which alleged that Chevron had caused environmental damage in Ecuador, the Niger Delta, Angola and Burma. Chevron said producing a special report "critiquing the environmental laws of the countries in which we operate is both inappropriate and unnecessary."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/41591/story.htm

[hedgehog]

1. That's not 91% of shareholders, it's 91% of holding corporations following

the board's recommnedations, no doubt. My husband's 401 is invested in a mutual fund. I imagine the people at the fund often vote opposite the way we would direct the proxies if we held the shares directly.

[gravity]

2. What do you expect?

Chevron shareholders aren't going to vote for anything that will make them lose money.

[hatrack]

3. Yes, fiduciary responsibility and all that

Shame about the biosphere, though . . .

[Javaman]

4. The greedy would shoot holes in their own boat if they thought

they could make a buck off of it.