San Ramon, CA – As Chevron continues to spend record amounts of money to defeat climate legislation in California, a coalition of shareholders, frontline communities, and activists around the world increased the pressure on the oil giant’s virtual Annual General Meeting this morning for its “egregious record on human rights, climate, and corporate accountability.”
“In a clear sign of growing investor dissent, 25% of shareholders voted in favor of lowering the threshold to call a special meeting to 10% (representing approximately 436 million shares, valued at around $60 billion),” according to a press release from Amazon Watch. “This is substantially higher than the threshold of 5% to 10% support usually garnered by shareholder resolutions not supported by management, a move aimed at bolstering oversight amid escalating reputational risk.”
“Meanwhile, 11% voted in support of a shareholder resolution calling for an independent third-party report on Chevron’s human rights practices – a resolution prompted by the company’s ongoing refusal to take responsibility for its toxic legacy in Ecuador,” the group wrote.
Actor and film producer Alec Baldwin presented the shareholder resolution, Proposal #7, on behalf of Newground Social Investment.
“Chevron’s key legal witness, Alberto Guerra, admitted under oath that he lied in court and was paid nearly half a million dollars after being coached more than 50 times by Gibson Dunn, Chevron’s law firm,” said Baldwin. “CEO Mike Wirth still refuses to explain how much shareholder money has funded this disgraceful retaliation against Indigenous peoples and their lawyer, Steven Donziger.”
The group said Wirth also declined to answer questions at the shareholder meeting about why he and Chevron have refused to respond to direct questions from the U.S. House Oversight Committee about the company’s $50 billion in debts to affected communities worldwide.
Kichwa leader Leo Cerda, speaking on behalf of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, echoed the call for accountability:
“Chevron came in, extracted oil, poisoned the land and water, and then walked away. Entire communities were left to face the consequences of corporate negligence. This is a human rights crisis – one where lives were devalued, voices ignored, and justice denied.”
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth responded to the human rights proposal by calling them “unsubstantiated” (despite references to 19 independent sources in the resolution materials) and with false claims that the $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron had been “definitively rejected by the courts,” the group wrote. This was despite the fact that Ecuador’s Constitutional Court upheld the verdict and Chevron refused to pay, instead pursuing retaliatory legal tactics in the U.S. Once again, Wirth declined to address how Chevron justifies its payments to Guerra or the broader implications of its actions in Ecuador.
“Notably absent from today’s AGM was any mention of the recent decision by Norway’s sovereign wealth fund – the world’s largest – to divest from Chevron due to ‘unacceptable risk’ tied to the company’s severe environmental damage and human rights violations in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The decision, revealed just one day prior, adds to growing global condemnation and investor concern, yet Chevron’s leadership offered no acknowledgment. This omission highlights the company’s continued refusal to address the full scope of its liabilities or the mounting financial consequences of its misconduct,” the group stated.
Chevron also refused to respond to growing calls to boycott the company for its operation and co-ownership of Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestinian land. At Chevron stations across the country, including in the Sacramento area and the Bay Area, local human rights and environmental justice groups have been holding regular protests to highlight the company’s complicity in genocide.
“CEO Wirth had no response to widespread protests held across the globe on May 21, 2025 – Global Anti-Chevron Day, marking the twelfth consecutive year of coordinated action. In fact, today, protests continue in Ecuador, where communities represented by the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT) are demonstrating against a recent Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunal award in Chevron’s favor. They are demanding that the Ecuadorian government reject the award and finally hold Chevron accountable for its pollution,” Amazon Watch wrote.
“Chevron continues to bury its head in the sand,” said Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch. “Rather than listen to affected communities, courts, and now even shareholders, the company doubles down on disinformation and impunity. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth continues his racist allegations that courts and judges in Ecuador are not valid and can be dismissed as proponents of ‘baseless allegation’ when in fact the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled unanimously that efforts to seek enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment are valid. Regardless, the global movement against Chevron’s abuses is growing, and we will not stop until justice is served.”
“Shareholders need to understand they’re receiving dirty money – profits that are ill-gotten gains,” said Donald Moncayo, President of the Union of Peoples Affected by Chevron/Texaco in Ecuador (UDAPT), upon visiting the site of Chevron’s Richmond refinery just prior the shareholder’s meeting on the 12th annual Global Anti-Chevron Day. “This isn’t clean money generated by legitimate business practices. It comes from the suffering of people impacted by Chevron’s wrongdoing.”
“The $9.5 billion debt Chevron owes isn’t for lawyers or individual compensation, as the company claims. It’s a court-ordered amount to clean up the soil, water, and sediment in the Amazon, and to support the cultural recovery of the Cofán, Siona, Siekopai, Waorani, Kichwa, and Achuar peoples whose lives and territories have been devastated by Chevron’s oil operation,” Moncayo concluded.
Why is Chevron able to get away with its sordid record of human rights violations, environmental devastation and complicity with genocide? It’s because of deep regulatory capture by Chevron and Big Oil in California and across the world.
The oil industry spent a record total of $38 million in lobbying expenses in California alone in 2024, shattering by 31 percent the annual state lobbying record of $26.2 million set in 2017, to thwart climate justice and other environmental legislation.
Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association spend more than any other corporate lobbying organizations in Sacramento every year. The Western States Petroleum Association placed first in the Big Oil lobbying spending spree with $17.4 million, while Chevron came in second with $14.2 million. Spending by the Western States Petroleum Association and Chevron alone shattered the previous record, coming in at $31.6 million in 2024.
The unprecedented lobbying spending spree by Big Oil that took place in 2023 and 2024 has continued into 2025 as the oil industry spends millions to stop the Polluters Pay Superfund Act and other climate legislation.
The oil and gas industry spent a total of $9,139,655, according to disclosures on the California Secretary of State’s website. As usual, Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association spent more than any other organization lobbying in the state during the first quarter of 2025.
Chevron came in first with $3,758,914 spent, while the Western States Petroleum Association finished second with $3,471,879 spent. That’s well over $7 million between those two organizations alone. .
Last year, Big Oil and their trade associations actively opposed legislation put forward by the Make Polluters Pay coalition, including SB 222, a bill that would have allowed climate disaster victims to seek compensation from the fossil fuel companies responsible. Those lobbying to kill the bill included Chevron, WSPA, Marathon, and Valero.
Most recently, the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act has faced fierce industry opposition. Ten oil companies, including Chevron, Marathon, ExxonMobil, Shell, and PBF Energy, lobbied against the bill that would hold fossil fuel corporations financially responsible for the damage they’ve caused.
