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ExxonMobil had a partial loss Wednesday in a bid to make sure that climate-minded investor groups can’t force shareholder resolutions that ask the company to take a more aggressive stance to fight global warming and reduce carbon emissions.
Two political activist investor groups attempted to put the matter to a vote before Exxon shareholders at its annual meeting. One was the U.S.-based Arjuna Capital. The other was the Dutch-based Follow This. Exxon sued both of them in a Texas federal court to block the proposal. The groups in turn revoked it, but Exxon continued with the suit to clarify Securities and Exchange Commission rules governing whether the shareholders could bring another such vote in the future. The case against Follow This was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, but the other will proceed.
The judge in the case, Mark Pittman, wrote in an order that “however strong Texas’s interests in the case may be, the Court must still evaluate the Netherlands’ interests in Follow This.”
On Monday, California’s state pension fund CalPERS released a statement saying that it will be opposing Exxon’s entire proposed board of directors slate over the suit because it dislikes the implications for both the climate and for shareholder rights.