Renewable Energy, Bias Ban Gain in Exxon Vote

Exxon Mobil Corp. management Wednesday defeated a series of contentious issues at the company’s annual meeting, but shareholders signaled rising support for promoting renewable energy and explicitly banning discrimination against gays.

The renewable-energy and antidiscrimination resolutions had received fewer than 13% of shareholder votes in previous years, but pulled 20.3% and 23.5% of the shares voted Wednesday, respectively, according to the company’s preliminary results.

Exxon Chairman Lee R. Raymond attributed the increase in support for the measures to endorsement from Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises pension funds and other large investors. He said the proposals would hurt Exxon Mobil’s business.

The renewable-energy resolution, offered by a Roman Catholic order from Milwaukee, called on Exxon Mobil to issue a report by Sept. 1 outlining how it would promote renewable energy and include alternatives to oil in the company’s energy mix.

Supporters of the resolution said Exxon Mobil lags behind global rivals Royal Dutch/Shell and BP in developing alternative fuels. They said the company was missing a long-term investment opportunity.

The nondiscrimination resolution was offered by the New York City Employees’ Retirement System and would request that the board amend Exxon Mobil’s written employment policy to explicitly ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Company officials argued that their policy prohibits discrimination of any kind and that nothing more explicit is needed to protect gay employees.