Descendants of legendary oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller have accused oil giant ExxonMobil of adopting a myopic approach toward alternative sources of energy and of refusing to engage in any meaningful discussion about the future of the planet.
At a feisty press conference in the penthouse suite of a luxury Manhattan hotel, members of the billionaire Rockefeller family complained that the world?? biggest oil company has repeatedly declined to listen to concerns about the direction of the business, which has its roots in their ancestor?? 19th century Standard Oil empire.
??here are an awful lot of people who are getting increasingly annoyed with Exxon,??said economist Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, a great-granddaughter of the company?? founder.
??ESKY??SHAREHOLDERS
??heir [Exxon??] attitude is ??hese pesky shareholders, they act as if they own the company,???she said.
In an unusually public step for the usually reticent philanthropic dynasty, the Rockefellers have set out four shareholder resolutions calling for an independent chairman; a taskforce to study global warming; a reduction in Exxon?? greenhouse gas emissions; and a renewable energy policy. They cite support from 66 of John D Rockefeller?? 78 direct descendants aged 21 or over.
A significant number of institutional investors support their call for Exxon?? chief executive Rex Tillerson to hand the role of chairman to an outsider ??a similar motion for such a change won 40 percent of investors??votes at last year?? annual meeting.
Rockefeller Goodwin said her family??almost defines the long-term investor??as the oldest continuous shareholder in Exxon. She spoke of ??erious disjunctures??between Exxon?? short-term actions and ??he long-term health both of this company and of the world?? economy.??br />
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Her cousin Peter O??eill said: ??f the next 20 years of the energy business were going to be just about oil and gas, we wouldn?? be holding this press conference.??br />
While other oil companies such as BP, Shell and Chevron have sought to paint themselves as green, ExxonMobil has adopted a hardline position.
The Texas-based firm has US$25 billion of capital investment planned in exploration and research of carbon-based fuels. Its main environmental commitment is a relatively modest US$100 million to fund a Stanford University center researching technical solutions to global warming.
??e think a few of those billions should go towards looking to the future and to the kind of energy this world might need,??Rockefeller Goodwin said.
She said that family members had been denied access to Exxon?? non-executive board members and that letters to independent directors had yielded stock responses drafted by company executives. Exxon?? top management, she said, consisted of veteran employees steeped in the firm?? culture.
CORPORATE CULTURE
??xxon has a very strong corporate culture ??strong in good ways and not so good ways,??Rockefeller Goodwin said. ??t includes an inability to listen to outsiders and an assumption that they know all the answers.??br />
Until recently, Exxon gave large donations to scientific institutes that disputed climate change. The company is reluctant to pump funds into environmental power forms such as wind and solar energy, arguing that such projects will not be viable until a step change in technology happens.
??e are focusing our support on research, both internally and externally, to achieve the large technological step changes that are needed,??a company spokesman said.
He denied any reluctance to enter into talks.
??e have met members of the Rockefeller family on many occasions over a number of years,??he said.
The shareholder proposals are not binding and Exxon merely says that any successful resolutions will be ??onsidered??by its board. In spite of criticism over its strategy, Exxon?? shares have surged by 20 percent in the last year and the firm commands a market value of US$497 billion.
The Rockefellers won?? say how many shares they hold. Company figures show the 12 family members proposing resolutions have 332,174 shares, worth US$31 million but amounting to only 0.006 percent of the company.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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