Chevron shareholders reject bid for environmental review

Chevron Corp. shareholders rejected a proposal requiring a report on whether laws in countries where the oil and gas producer operates are adequate to protect human health, the environment and its own reputation.

As about 40 demonstrators outside the company’s headquarters called on Chevron to protect the environment in oil-producing nations, Chief Executive Dave O’Reilly said at the annual meeting Wednesday that it had done nothing wrong in a dispute in Ecuador.

Trillum Asset Management and other investment groups had proposed that Chevron submit the report by November.

About 91% of shareholder votes cast before the meeting were against the proposal, which alleged that Chevron had caused environmental damage in Ecuador, the Niger Delta, Angola and Myanmar.

Chevron said producing a report “critiquing the environmental laws of the countries in which we operate is both inappropriate and unnecessary.”

The Ecuador debate involves a $6-billion lawsuit by Amazon jungle dwellers that accuses the second-largest U.S. oil and gas company of polluting their communities.

Nearly 30,000 jungle residents accuse Chevron’s Texaco subsidiary of dumping 18 billion gallons of oil-laden water into the environment in Ecuador from 1972 to 1992 and demand damages.

O’Reilly, in response to questions at the annual meeting, said that the spill was cleaned up and that there was no scientific evidence to support a claim that Texaco had done any harm.