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<\/p>\nExxon Mobil Corp.\u00a0shareholders installed two new members to the oil giant\u2019s board on Wednesday, a dramatic move led by activist investors that could force the company to better address climate change and ultimately transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
The move is a remarkable blow to Exxon\u2019s leadership, which had until Wednesday largely selected its own directors for the company\u2019s 12-member board. The new board members were pushed by a small, activist hedge fund, Engine No. 1, that garnered the support of some of Exxon\u2019s biggest investors in calling for U.S. energy companies to shift their business models as climate change intensifies.<\/p>\n
Shareholders voted to install Gregory Goff and Kaisa Hietala, who both have experience in the energy industry, to the company\u2019s board. Votes had not yet determined one other Engine No. 1 board candidate pushed by the activist firm, and eight of Exxon\u2019s choices won seats, according to preliminary results.<\/p>\n
The votes were still being tallied Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
The New York Times notes that Engine No. 1 owns less than 1% of Exxon\u2019s stock but began its push for new board members in December, the latest initiative by activists to force oil companies to address climate change linked to the burning of fossil fuels. The publication added that the European energy companies have spent the last decade beginning to invest in renewable energy sources, but U.S. companies have so far resisted such changes, calling them unsustainable and bad for business.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists and investors, however, have long argued against that stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t really about ideology, it\u2019s about economics,\u201d Chris James, the founder of Engine No. 1, told the Times on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The outcome is a defeat for Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, who had called the board\u2019s previous makeup \u201camong the strongest in the corporate world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome all of our new directors and look forward to working with them constructively and collectively on behalf of all shareholders,\u201d Woods said in a statement shortly after Wednesday\u2019s vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, called the decision part of a slate of \u201cgood news\u201d for environmentalists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re signs that a decade of battering away by activists is finally taking a real toll,\u201d McKibben told MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday. \u201cExxon is still powerful, but it\u2019s now on the ropes in all kinds of ways. As of tomorrow, they\u2019re that much less powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vote played out amid a multimillion-dollar battle from both sides to determine the makeup of the oil behemoth\u2019s leadership council. Exxon Mobil said it had spent $35 million to counter Engine No. 1\u2019s own $30 million campaign.<\/p>\n
Exxon was just one of three major oil companies to face blows this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a court ruling in the Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell was ordered to cut its carbon dioxide emissions 45% below 2019 levels by the end of the decade. Later Wednesday, shareholders at Chevron Corp. voted to force the company to make a plan to cut the emissions generated by its products.<\/p>\n
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