XOM Exxon Mobil Corp

BOSTON, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Nineteen institutional investors - including some of Exxon Mobil's largest shareowners - with more than $740 billion in combined assets under management are voting next week in support of resolutions asking Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) to address climate change risks and opportunities and separate the Chairman and CEO positions. The major investors holding over 91 million shares of Exxon Mobil stock valued at more than $8.6 billion (based on May 20, 2008 market close of $94.56/share) announced today they are supporting four key climate-related shareholder resolutions, as well as a separate proxy item to split the CEO and chairman jobs. The resolutions will be voted on at the Exxon Mobil annual meeting on May 28, 2008 in Dallas, Texas. Investors supporting the climate/independent chairman resolutions include such major Exxon Mobil shareowners as the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) with 23.9 million Exxon Mobil shares, the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) with 20.8 million shares, the New York State Common Retirement Fund with 20 million shares, the New York City Retirement System with 19 million shares, and the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds with 3.2 million shares. Other Exxon Mobil shareowners announcing their support today for the climate/independent chairman resolutions at XOM (items #5, 15, 17, 18, 19 on the Exxon Mobil proxy statement) include the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan, Illinois State Board of Investment, Maine State Treasurer, SEIU Master Trust, Vermont State Treasurer, the United Methodist Church General Board of Pension and Health Benefits, Christian Brothers Investment Services, Christopher Reynolds Foundation, Green Century Capital Management, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NorthStar Asset Management, Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, NJ, and Walden Asset Management. "Exxon Mobil's go-slow approach in addressing greenhouse gas reductions and investments in renewable energy sources places long-term shareholder value at risk," said California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who serves on the board at CalPERS and CalSTRS, two of the nation's public pension funds. "Instead of dragging its feet, Exxon Mobil should be taking the lead in providing long-term climate solutions." "Exxon Mobil has long evinced a culture of defiance and indifference to many important concerns of long-term shareholders," said New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. who oversees New York City retirement system assets. "The company can take the first step to reforming itself by separating the positions of CEO and Chairman of the Board. Absent this reform, the board will continue to follow rather than lead, and shareholders will continue to be frustrated by their unresponsiveness to their important concerns." "Exxon Mobil has taken an alarmingly relaxed position when it comes to dealing with climate change and the risks it presents to the company's long-term success," said Mindy S. Lubber, Ceres president and director of the $5 trillion Investor Network on Climate Risk, which helped coordinate the shareholder resolutions. "Investors want Exxon Mobil to not only understand the business impacts of climate change, but to mitigate the financial risks and take advantage of the numerous growing opportunities that exist." Unlike other major oil firms, whose boards and top management are actively engaged in tackling the risks and opportunities posed by climate change, Exxon Mobil has been unresponsive to repeated investor requests regarding its climate-related business strategies. The four climate resolutions request that the board develop a comprehensive greenhouse gas emission reduction targets (item #15 on proxy, lead proponent is Patricia Daly); create a task force to investigate the consequences of climate change on business models in emerging markets (item #17; lead proponent is Neva Rockefeller Goodwin); report on how it will become an industry leader in developing technologies to create energy independence in the U.S. (item #18 on proxy; lead proponent is Michael Crosby); adopt a policy to expand renewable energy R&D and sourcing (item #19 on proxy; lead proponent is Stephen Viederman); and the fifth resolution would separate the CEO and board chairman positions now held by Exxon Mobil's Rex Tillerson and require an independent director serve as chairman (item #5 on the proxy; lead proponent is Robert A. G. Monks). Several of the resolutions are also being supported by three key proxy voting advisory firms, RiskMetrics Group (formerly known as ISS), Glass Lewis and Proxy Governance Inc. The resolutions are also backed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an association of 275 faith-based institutional investors While industry peers including Chevron, BP and Shell have already invested billions of dollars in renewable energy and set company-wide greenhouse gas reduction targets, Exxon Mobil has yet to take substantial action to deal with the economic, competitive, physical and regulatory risks resulting from climate change. Exxon also stands alone among many of its peers in opposing national climate policies to curb greenhouse emissions. Many countries around the world have already adopted carbon-reducing regulations and the U.S. Congress is expected to vote on national climate legislation as early as this year. Companies that fail to substantially reduce their greenhouse gas emissions could face billions of dollars of additional operating costs as these regulations take further hold. "The board can demonstrate new leadership by acting to position the company for the inevitable carbon-constrained future," Thompson said. "While recent unprecedented profits have served to boost executive pay, and win support from some short-term investors, clearly this is not sustainable." ABOUT CERES AND INCR Ceres is a leading coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of 65 institutional investors with collective assets totaling $5 trillion focused on the business impacts of climate change. For more information, visit http://www.ceres.org/ or http://www.incr.com/. DATASOURCE: Ceres, Boston, MA; Investor Network on Climate Risk, Boston, MA CONTACT: Peyton Fleming of Ceres, +1-617-247-0700 x20 or +1-617-733-6660 (cell) Web Site: http://www.ceres.org/ http://www.incr.com/

Copyright