Today, Junkscience.com founder and E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow Steve Milloy filed separate “greenwashing” shareholder proposals with ExxonMobil and Xcel Energy. Following are two separate blog posts Milloy posted to Junkscience.com.
Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy announced in 2019 it would be the first electric utility to derive 100% of its electricity from sources that don’t emit CO2 by 2050. Management should explain to shareholders what this will accomplish and what it will cost. Below is the shareholder proposal I just filed with Xcel.
Greenwashing Audit
Resolved:
Shareholders request that, beginning in 2020, Xcel Energy annually publish a report of actually incurred corporate costs and associated actual and significant benefits accruing to shareholders and the climate from Xcel’s global climate-related activities that are voluntary and exceed government regulatory requirements. The report should be prepared at reasonable cost and omit proprietary information.
Supporting Statement:
Xcel’s purpose is to generate profits from generating affordable and reliable electricity while obeying applicable laws and regulations. Maintaining coal plants is the least expensive option for generating electricity per the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Coal Council 2018 report, “Power Reset” (www.BurnMoreCoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NCC-Power-Reset-2018.pdf). Yet Xcel management intends to shutter its remaining coal plants, presumably in hopes of somehow altering global climate change.
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil says it plays “an essential role in addressing the risks of climate change.” But the oil ExxonMobil sells (when burned) emits 30 times more CO2 than the amount of emissions ExxonMobil claims to avoid emitting at its facilities. So what is actually being accomplished by the billions of dollars ExxonMobil spends “addressing the risks of climate change”? Below is my just-filed shareholder proposal.
Greenwashing Audit
Resolved:
Shareholders request that, beginning in 2020, ExxonMobil publish an annual report of the incurred costs and associated significant and actual benefits that have accrued to shareholders, the public health and the environment, including the global climate, from the company’s environment-related activities that are voluntary and that exceed U.S. and foreign compliance and regulatory requirements. The report should be prepared at reasonable cost and omit proprietary information.
