CEO Darren Woods says California's retirement fund is "stifling" the oil giant by opposing one such lawsuit
ExxonMobil $XOM is suing some of its own shareholders because they asked it to take a stronger stance on climate change, and CEO Darren Woods is upset that some people don’t like that. Writing in The Financial Times on Tuesday, he called out CalPERS, California’s state pension fund and the nation’s largest, for opposing the lawsuit.
“Calpers also knows these activists have no interest in earning a return on ExxonMobil shares,” he wrote. “They want to financially hurt the company and compromise the investments of millions who rely on the dividend as part of their retirement portfolio.”
Two climate-focused activist investor groups, the U.S.-based Arjuna Capital and the Netherlands-based Follow This, sought to call a shareholder vote that would force Exxon to take account of a broader array of carbon emissions related to the use of its products. Exxon sued them in federal court to block the measure. Though they dropped the matter, Exxon is continuing with its suit in order to clarify whether the groups would be allowed to do so again in the future. In response, CalPERS said it would be opposing Exxon’s entire board of directors nomination slate at its annual meeting.
Woods wrote that he thinks CalPERS is organizing “an effort stifle and punish a company as it seeks what anyone in business desires: fairness and predictability in the application of the law.”
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