REMARKS OF REV. MICHAEL CROSBY PRESENTING A SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION AT EXXONMOBIL ON NAMING TO ITS BOARD AN INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR WITH CLIMATE EXPERTISE.
(Please compare text here with delivery at XOM’s AGM May 25, 2016)
Mr. Tillerson, Board Members and Shareholders: my name is Michael Crosby. I am Capuchin Franciscan priest-friar from Milwaukee. We belong to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. I move our proposal on page 57 of the proxy book. It asks that, the “Board’s Nominating Committee nominate for Board election at least one candidate who:has a high level of climate change expertise and experience in environmental matters.”
Before I share my rationale for this resolution, I want to compliment you, Mr. Tillerson, on your opening remarks. For the first time, in my knowledge, you have begun your comments at any AGM by acknowledging climate change, the impact of fossil fuels on climate change and the need for us to take creative actions to remedy this critical concern.
Along with many long-term ICCR members here, I’ve been addressing issues of climate change with Exxon and ExxonMobil for almost 20 years. Last year we filed this resolution, in part, because the Company’s management does not give its shareholders access to the Board. We also filed the resolution because, according to ExxonMobil’s own proxy, on pages 6-8, not one outside Board member has any expertise in the field of energy, much less climate change. It says twelve have global business expertise, five have financial expertise and one has credentials in chemistry. But management’s own listing has nobody with any expertise around climate risk, the biggest threat to Exxon’s business, not to mention everyone else on the planet.
Maybe if we would have had a climate change expert on the Board s/he would not have allowed Exxon to deny climate change even existed for a full ten years after we filed our first resolution in 1997? Why is it that a priest like me accepted the consensus of the scientific community’s basic data back then and why did ExxonMobil’s Board reject every reasonable resolution we filed since then, including today’s? Even as I speak today the Company continues to finance ALEC and other groups [hold up NYT add from 05.18.16] from the Competitive Enterprise Institute who resist states’ efforts to stop those who continue to undermine their efforts to address climate change on behalf of their citizens?
10 weeks ago CalPERS said it will now ask “corporations to include climate change experts on their governing boards.” If CalPERS sees this as a need for all companies, how much more a company like ExxonMobil which is almost 100% tied to the production of products that are making climate change even worse?
Today, at this stockholders meeting, with more press participating than ever, ExxonMobil has a chance to begin to restore the public’s trust. This calls for conversion. As a Catholic priest I join Pope Francis in believing that conversion is always possible. The Board can witness to its commitment to convert by now agreeing that its next nominee be a candidate with climate expertise.