Exxon, at Shareholders’ Urging, Vows New Environment Policies

Exxon said Thursday that it will appoint a person with an environmental background to its board and adopt new policies that its shareholders suggested in the wake of the Alaskan oil spill.

Exxon said it also will recommend that its directors establish a committee to review corporate policies and programs related to worker safety and the environment.

In addition, Exxon said it will consider spending more money on environmental research and pollution prevention. About $5.5 billion has been spent in that area from 1970 to 1988, it said.

The announcement comes about a week after Exxon management met with representatives of New York City’s pension fund, a large shareholder.

New York City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin, who recommended the changes, said he was pleased by the announcement.

“It’s a rather extraordinary development for a large American company,” he said in a telephone interview.

Ed Rothschild, a spokesman for the Washington consumer group Citizen Action, called the announcement nothing more than “a public relations window dressing” that will do nothing to improve the environment.

New York City officials had said that three city pension funds owning 6 million shares of Exxon stock would vote against management at the May 18 annual shareholders meeting if the company failed to act on their recommendations.

California’s state employee pension fund, the nation’s biggest, had indicated that it might back the New York group.