Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260226
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS W. LIPPMAN WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: HOUSTON LENGTH: Medium
The environmentalists and unhappy Alaskans had the emotion, but the management of Exxon Corp. had the votes.
At a smoothly managed annual meeting of its shareholders, Exxon used the power of the proxy Wednesday to brush aside demands for new corporate commitments on the environment.
Chairman Lawrence G. Rawl was conciliatory but firm as he and the board of directors rejected stockholder proposals for a formal commitment to continue the cleanup of last year's Exxon Valdez Alaskan oil spill and for restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions and the production of toxic chemicals.
Exxon's environmental record dominated the meeting, with most speakers supporting the resolutions. But when the votes were counted, no proposal got as much as 10 percent of the vote.
Rawl made clear early in the meeting that he would give no ground to the dissidents. Brent Blackwell, vice president of Friends of the Earth, learned how clear.
Saying he held the proxies of 12 members of Exxon's founding Rockefeller family, Blackwell proposed that former Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., a leading environmentalist, be elected to Exxon's board.
Rawl noted that Nelson is 74 and Exxon's mandatory retirement age for directors is 70. Beyond that, he said, "with the number of shares that are going to be voted here Wednesday, he's not going to win. That's the way the process works."
The votes "show that we've gotten our message across,' Rawl said afterward. "The large shareholders respect what we've been doing."
The nation's biggest oil company reported first-quarter profits of $1.28 billion, or $1.01 a share, almost unchanged from the period in 1989. Revenue was $26.7 billion, up 20.3 percent over last year's first quarter - signs that a consumer boycott declared after the Valdez spill has had little effect on the company.
by CNB