Wednesday, I’ll be at the Exxon Mobil annual general meeting in Dallas to speak truth to oil.
Climate Hawks Vote has been at the vanguard of the movement to bring Exxon to justice. We launched the very first petition calling upon the Department of Justice to investigate Exxon for its lies. It’s not a coincidence that a Climate Hawks Vote-endorsed member of Congress, Ted Lieu, has likewise been on the leading edge.
No, I won’t be supporting shareholder resolutions asking Exxon, nicely, to please get around to reporting the greenhouse gas emissions it’s been certain of for decades. As Bill McKibben put it - forget the resolutions because Exxon won’t change its stripes. Shareholders tried that last year, Exxon’s chairperson told them that if the climate changed we’d just adapt, and Mother Nature laughed all the way through the 12 hottest months on record.
Instead, I’ll be speaking outside on the need to end the charade of shareholder resolutions, and skipping right to the divestment and investigation phase. CalPERS, the huge California public employees’ pension fund, has its second largest holdings in a single company in Exxon. The California Democratic Party calls for divestment (thanks to a resolution I wrote), but CalPERS is still betting, wrongly, on engagement. And now that Democratic attorneys general are edging closer to filing lawsuits against Exxon, House Republicans like Lamar Smith (TX-21) are responding by - wait for it - investigating the attorneys general. Which makes perfect sense in the belly of the beast.
Only issue is - my fledgling organization doesn’t have a travel budget to speak of. Kossacks, can you help me raise $500 to go to Dallas? I promise to stay in a cheap motel.
In the area? join me starting at 7:30 AM at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center - RSVP here.
Outside Dallas? sign our petition to investigate and prosecute Exxon.
