NY Times: Chevron Aims at an Activist Shareholder

New York Times business writer Gretchen Morgenson has written a column regarding Trillium’s shareholder engagement with Chevron Corporation, and the subpoena we recently received from the oil company related to its nearly 20-year legal battle with indigenous populations in the Amazon rainforest. The long-running court case alleges that Texaco, which merged with Chevron 10 years ago, destroyed huge tracts of the rainforest by dumping billions of gallons of oil waste products over several decades.

Morgenson writes:

“Public corporations routinely tell shareholders that their views matter. The Chevron Corporation, for example, said in its 2012 proxy statement: ‘Your board welcomes dialogue on the topics presented in the stockholder proposals on the following pages.’ So it might seem odd that last month Chevron subpoenaed one of its investors, Trillium Asset Management, which has sponsored numerous shareholder proposals at Chevron over the years. The oil company demanded documents related to those proposals. The subpoena also asked for records of discussions Trillium had about these proposals with the media.

It is unusual to make such a demand from a shareholder, corporate governance experts say. While companies often try to keep shareholder resolutions off the ballot by contending that they do not follow the rules, going beyond that is rare…”

You can read the entire article here.