EnviroPolitics Blog

Exxon foils activist investors

A virtual meeting likely hasn’t seen this much tension since your family tried to play Quiplash during the pandemic. Most shareholders (95%) sided with Exxon Mobil yesterday during the company’s annual shareholder meeting, voting to reelect all 12 directors despite intense drama leading up to the meeting over climate change and shareholder rights.

Some backstory

Earlier this year, Exxon sued Arjuna Capital and Follow This, two activist investor groups that proposed more aggressive targets for emissions cuts. The company, which has the weakest emissions reduction targets among the “oil supermajors” around the world, according to Carbon Tracker, claimed their proposal pushed an “extreme agenda” that would obliterate shareholder value.

Arjuna and Follow This withdrew the resolution.
But Exxon is forging ahead with its lawsuit, hoping to change the current process and block future resolutions it believes will hurt the company.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have filed briefs in support of Exxon in the suit, but not everyone is a fan. CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, said last week it would vote against all of Exxon’s current board members, including its CEO, to protest the company’s lawsuit. It claimed the suit’s repercussions could be “devastating” and threaten shareholder power to hold corporations accountable.

It’s not just CalPERS: Seven Exxon shareholders filed documents with the SEC to protest the company’s lawsuit. And just days before the CalPERS announcement, the New York State Common Retirement Fund said it would vote against most of the board because of the company’s climate policies.

Activists are hitting a Big Oil wall. Exxon ended yesterday with an overwhelming win, and last week, Shell shareholders ignored protesters on and around their voting floor. Activist investors pushing for Big Oil to make serious changes for the climate, like Follow This, will need to put their energy toward winning over more shareholders like pension funds and investment firms to succeed.—MM

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EPA sending $12 Million in Rebates for Clean School Buses Across NJ

From the Environmental Protection Agency

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selections to receive rebates under the 2023 Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, including rebates to benefits kids in New Jersey.

Eleven school districts in New Jersey will benefit from a total of over $12 million in rebates that will provide almost 70 clean school buses. The program will help New Jersey accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles and to replace older, diesel school buses, which have been linked to asthma and other conditions that harm the health of students and surrounding communities.

In September 2023, the EPA announced the availability of at least $500 million for its 2023 Clean School Bus rebates. The rebate application period closed in February 2024 with an outstanding response from school districts across the country seeking to purchase electric and clean school buses. Given the overwhelming demand, including in low-income communities, Tribal nations and U.S. territories, EPA doubled the amount of available funding to nearly $1 billion.

This third round of funding will build on the previous almost $2 billion investment via the 2022 Rebates and 2023 Grants to further improve air quality in and around schools, reduce greenhouse gas pollution fueling the climate crisis, and help accelerate America’s leadership in developing the clean vehicles of the future.

The selections announced today will provide funds to school districts in 47 states and Washington D.C., along with several federally recognized Tribes and U.S. territories. Prioritized school districts in low-income, rural, and Tribal communities make up approximately 45 percent of the selected projects and will receive approximately 67 percent of the total funding. The program delivers on President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.

The EPA is also partnering with the Joint Office of Energy and Department of Transportation to provide school districts with robust technical assistance to ensure effective implementation.

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Webinar: Using MyCoast NJ App

ANJEC’S 2024 CITIZEN SCIENTIST SERIES

Session 1: Using MyCoast NJ App to Capture Important Weather & Climate Related Events in your Community

Tuesday, June 18, 2024, 7 p.m. Via Zoom Webinar

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

Have you experienced more frequent or intense flooding in your community and would like to report the issue? Learn how to become a Citizen Scientist by using the MyCoast NJ App to capture important weather and climate related events in your community.

The MyCoast initiative launched in 2021 is designed to give you a platform where you can share photos and stories to document impacts of flooding due to rain, storms, or high tides and changes to our environment over time. The collected data helps determine how often a community is flooding and where, leading a collaborative effort to identify and prioritize climate change resilience strategies and make informed management decisions for New Jersey.

Learn how to use the app from the NJDEP and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve who partnered together to create this platform. We will also hear from a former Aberdeen Environmental Board member on how the how this app is being used locally.

ANJEC Members: No charge Non-Members: $15 Click here to register now

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If you can’t stand the heat, stay off the beach

New Jersey is warming faster than any other state in the Northeast, officials say. But water quality is excellent, welcoming the state’s annual horde of shore visitors

*The ocean horizon is clear on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Long Beach Township, N.J. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)*

By Susan Phillips, WHYY News

Heading into the long Memorial Day weekend, which marks the unofficial start of summer, New Jersey’s environmental officials had some good news for beachgoers.

“Our water quality along our coastal communities is excellent and ready for our visitors,” said New Jersey Commissioner of Environmental Protection Shawn LaTourette.

LaTourette spoke at the release of the annual “State of the Shore” report in Asbury Park Thursday after an early morning observational flight along the coast. DEP officials began testing water at the state’s ocean beaches, lakes and rivers in mid-May and will continue to do so until mid-September.

But LaTourette also raised warnings about the impact of climate change on public health.

“As we head out to enjoy our beaches or our lakefronts and our rivers, it’s important to remember that last year was the hottest year on record,” LaTourette said. “And we expect more extreme heat to exacerbate health conditions.”

LaTourette said the state is working on an extreme heat action plan as climate change is bringing more flooding and high temperatures to the Garden State. Hurricane season is also expected to break records this year.

New Jersey is warming faster than any other state in the Northeast, according to scientists with the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, a collaboration of academic institutions and organizations that research and monitor the marine environment. New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium publishes the annual report.

Click to read the full story

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More deceptions from the fossil fuel industry

By DESMOG

DeSmog continues to reveal more deceptions by the fossil fuel industry from a trove of documents released during last month’s congressional probe of the industry. And in a major development this week, leaders of the probe called on the Department of Justice to investigate Big Oil’s decades-long climate disinformation campaigns and take any necessary legal action, much as the government did with the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.

We’ll keep our eyes on developments for you as more and more internal records are released.

DeSmog’s Cartie Werthman delved into the congressional-probe documents to show greenwashing at work. While ExxonMobil touted carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in numerous ad campaigns, internal documents show that behind the scenes, the company actually saw a “limited” role for the technology to combat climate change.

“In 2018, while ExxonMobil was employing advertising firms to loudly tout their CCS efforts as evidence that ExxonMobil is participating in the energy transition in good faith and that CCS was an extremely valuable tool to mitigate climate change, they internally believed CCS to be a mediocre-at-best contributor to carbon sequestration,” Lindsey Gulden, a data scientist formerly employed by ExxonMobil who reviewed the internal documents, told DeSmog.

Exxon’s role in greenwashing carbon capture comes as no surprise. This week, the only climate scientist on the company’s board is stepping down with nothing to show for broader hopes that she would make the company rethink its climate approach. Our story reignites debate about the role of a scientist on the board of a major oil company with a legacy of spreading science denial and ignoring internal expertise.

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‘Batten down the hatches.’ Nasty hurricane season predicted

NOAA outlook predicts 17 to 25 tropical storms, eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven “major” hurricanes

By Scott Dance, The Washington Post

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned Thursday that the United States could face one of its worst hurricane seasons in two decades as the agency issued its most aggressive outlook ever.

Government meteorologists predicted 17 to 25 tropical storms and said eight to 13 of them are likely to become hurricanes, including four to seven “major” hurricanes. The forecast underscores how record-hot ocean temperatures have increased the risk of destructive weather.

“This season is looking to be an extraordinary one,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said.

Tropical activity could outpace even a record flurry of storms in 2005, perhaps starting earlier and persisting even longer. That May, warm waters across the tropical Atlantic Ocean prompted warnings of an active hurricane season, but the season exceeded all expectations with a record-smashing 28 storms and seven major hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina.