Chevron Shareholders Reject Environment Proposal
Date: 27-Apr-07
Country: US
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."
The Ecuador debate involves a US$6 billion lawsuit by Amazon jungle dwellers that accuses the second-largest US oil and gas company of polluting their communities.
Nearly 30,000 jungle residents, including the Cofan Indian tribe, accuse Chevron's Texaco subsidiary of dumping 18 billion gallons of oil-laden water into the environment in Ecuador from 1972 to 1992 and demand damages.
Texaco was acquired by Chevron in 2001, and the company denied any wrongdoing. Chevron no longer operates in Ecuador, which is South America's fifth-largest oil producer with an output of around 530,000 barrels of oil per day.
O'Reilly, in response to questions at the annual meeting, said the spill was cleaned up and that there was no scientific evidence to support a claim that Texaco had done any harm.
Chevron will "vigorously defend" itself when it is falsely accused, O'Reilly said, adding: "We take great care how we operate around the world."
In 1998, the Ecuador government said the clean-up was completed and released a Texaco unit from any future environmental liabilities, Chevron said.