Shareholder efforts to influence companies' approaches to issues related to climate change have suffered blows from both financial regulators and a federal judge in recent weeks.
Staff for the U.S. SEC on March 6 said that Dominion Energy Inc., Sempra Energy and PNM Resources Inc. could justifiably exclude from their proxy materials shareholder resolutions calling for the companies to report on the risks that planned natural gas infrastructure could become economically stranded due to government climate policies. Commission staff also said there appeared to be a legal basis for Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. to block resolutions that would commit the companies to support policies aimed at reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and, in the case of Exxon, to create a climate-risk committee.
Those findings followed a February ruling by a U.S. district court judge in Montana that NorthWestern Corp. could exclude a shareholder resolution calling for the company to publish a plan for stopping coal-fired generation at the Colstrip power plant and replacing it with renewable energy and energy storage. Read Full Article - S&P Global, March 20, 2020