History was made today in Houston when more than 25.8% percent of ConocoPhillips shareholders voted in favor of a resolution asking the company to recognize – and eventually stay out of – sensitive areas within the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, particularly areas near Teshekpuk Lake.
The resolution, filed by Green Century Capital Management as part of the U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s Arctic Wilderness Campaign, was the first-ever shareholder resolution filed regarding Alaska’s western Arctic. The 25.8% vote in favor of the resolution represents the highest vote ever given by shareholders on a question of wilderness preservation.
“Today’s vote sends an unmistakable message to ConocoPhillips about the importance of Teshekpuk Lake and about the company’s broader environmental policies,” said Athan Manuel, of the U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s Arctic Wilderness Campaign. “More and more Americans – and shareholders – are beginning to realize how important it is to protect these one of a kind areas.”
Teshekpuk provides critical migratory bird habitat, and is central to the lives of local Native populations who use the area for subsistence fishing and hunting. The resolution calls on ConocoPhillips to consider the potential environmental damage that would result from drilling for oil and gas in the western Arctic, especially the northeast planning area adjacent to Teshekpuk Lake. It goes on to ask the company to consider not drilling in that region. The Teshekpuk Lake region, an area that encompasses the most important and sensitive wetland complexes in the circumpolar Arctic, supports the highest density of nesting waterfowl and shorebirds on Alaska’s North Slope.
“This is a landmark day for Teshekpuk Lake and for all threatened ecosystems around the world,” said Andrew Shalit of Green Century Capital Management. “Over one quarter of the shareholders of an oil company have said, ‘Sometimes you shouldn’t drill. You have to consider the environmental cost.’ We hope ConocoPhillips and other oil companies will take that message to heart and develop policies to protect the world’s most sensitive ecosystems.”
The 25.8% percent vote is the highest ever received by a shareholder resolution on the subject of wilderness preservation. This vote guarantees that the preservation of Teshekpuk Lake will stay on agenda of ConocoPhillips’ management in the coming year.
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U.S. PIRG is the national lobbying office for the state Public Interest Research Groups. PIRGs are nonpartisan, nonprofit environmental and consumer advocacy organizations that are active across the country.
Green Century Capital Management is the administrator of the first family of no-load, environmentally responsible mutual funds, the Green Century Funds. Green Century was founded by nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations.
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