A consortium of shareholder activist groups have filed a list of proposals for environmental disclosures on hydraulic fracturing that they want energy companies to put before their shareholders.
For the third year, two of the shareholder activists, Investor Environmental Health Network and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, issued proposals for inclusion among the items shareholders vote on in person or by proxy at the annual meetings of public companies.
This year’s proposals went to several large energy companies involved in hydraulic fracturing, including Anadarko Petroleum, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Noble Energy, Penn Virginia, Range Resources, Stone Energy, EOG and Ultra Petroleum. The proposals were sponsored by various shareholder groups within the consortium.
“The reason we filed with those 10 companies is because we believe that those companies don’t provide necessary information on fracking regulation for shareholders to decide whether they are effectively managing those risks,” said Larissa Ruoff, director of Shareholder Advocacy for Green Century Capital Management, which coordinates investors’ engagements with companies on hydraulic fracturing.
The proposals include environmental protections, such as reducing the surface footprint of a well, assuring well integrity and protecting water quality by rigorous monitoring.
The groups meet with the companies and may withdraw proposals as a result of the talks. Last year, for example, the groups withdrew some proposals after meeting with Anadarko, and the same thing happened this year with EOG.
“I think those conversations are very valuable and something that needs to occur between business and shareholders to see that transparency is achieved,” said Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen, explaining that the group’s efforts to promote environmental risk transparency had helped encourage the development of FracFocus – a website on which companies report the contents of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. “You are starting to see a lot of movement in the right direction. FracFocus is a great step.”
Many companies have participated in FracFocus voluntarily. It became mandatory in Texas Feb. 1.
