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Institutional Investors Seek Meeting With Exxon Board

Seventeen leading U.S. pension fund and other institutional investors controlling $658 billion in assets are pushing for a face-to-face-meeting with independent members of the Exxon Mobil board of directors as a result of growing financial world concerns that Exxon Mobil is “a company that fails to acknowledge the potential for climate change to have a profound impact on global energy markets, and which lags far behind its competitors in developing a strategy to plan for and manage these impacts.” Pension fund trustees from seven states, New York City, and eight other major institutional investors with over 85 million Exxon Mobil shares worth an estimated $5.26 billion made the request for the meeting this week. All those seeking the action from Exxon Mobil are members of the Investor Network on Climate Risk. The group of 17 consists of six state treasurers (Connecticut, California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Maine, Vermont), the California State Controller, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the New York State Comptroller, New York City Comptroller, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, Walden Asset Management, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and […]

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GE Ecomagination Revenues Cross $10 Billion

According to General Electric’s (NYSE:GE) newly released 2005 ecomagination report, revenues from the sale of energy efficient and environmentally advanced products and services hit $10.1 billion in 2005, up from $6.2 billion in 2004 – with orders nearly doubling to $17 billion. “Ecomagination is paying off for our investors and customers,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. “Our advanced environmental products and services are helping customers increase their energy efficiency and reduce costs and emissions. And it is providing the growth we expected for GE, as we are ahead of our plan to reach $20 billion in annual sales of ecomagination products by 2010.” Launched in May 2005, ecomagination is GE’s commitment to imagine and build innovative technologies that help customers address their environmental and financial needs and help GE grow. On the other side of the coin, another division of GE announced it will likely win orders to build 2 new nuclear plants, in addition to the three it already has orders for. GE is also using ecomagination as a platform to improve the energy efficiency of its own operations, helping to lower costs. In 2004 and 2005, GE attacked higher energy expenditures by undertaking nearly 500 global […]

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House Votes to Protect Coasts From Drilling Rigs

The House of Representatives voted to keep the 25-year bipartisan offshore drilling moratorium in place 217-203 in an amendment to the Interior funding bill stripping the provision that would have lifted the moratorium on natural gas drilling. “Millions of Americans can be assured that their treasured special coastal places will remain rig-free, but their vigilance should remain high; Big Oil is not likely to give up on this any time soon,” stated Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. The amendment to reinstate the 25-year ban was co-sponsored by Reps. Adam Putnam (R-FL) and Lois Capps (D-CA). “With 80 percent of recoverable gas and oil resources already available and 4,000 existing leases going unused, natural gas and oil companies have more than enough access to fossil fuels,” declared Schlickeisen. “These facts certainly clearly dispel the industries’ claims that they need to drill as close as three miles off of our treasured coastal shorelines.” “Defenders hopes that as House leaders continue to discuss the nation’s energy future and legislate energy policy, that they place serious consideration into renewable, clean and effective energy sources and not waste anymore time relying on old, dirty and outdated oil and gas drilling options,” affirmed Schlickeisen.

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Persistence Starts to Pay Off for Chicago Emissions Market

URL: http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=1925&topicId=100002042&docId=l:386366523&start=20&dateId=20060515 Website: http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=1925&topicId=100002042&docId=l:386366523&start=20&dateId=20060515     

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Kleiner Perkins Launches Prize for Green Innovation, Greentech Innovation Network

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), one of the leading venture capital firms in the U.S., recently committed to invest $150 million in green technologies. This week the company announced a $50 million in ethanols company Altra Inc, and annnounced the new KPCB Prize for Green Innovation as part of KPCB’s “Greentech initiative.” “Altra is a national leader in ethanol production,” said John Doerr, KPCB partner. “Its unique, proprietary technology and strong, passionate team make it a sustainable, high-impact business. Altra is creating a nationwide ethanol production footprint by acquiring and ‘speeding up’ existing, traditional corn-to-ethanol plants and by ‘starting up’ new ones.” Based in Los Angeles, California, Altra has signed a definitive agreement to acquire California’s largest operating ethanol plant. Altra has invested in five biofuels plants, which will have the capacity to produce 175 million gallons of ethanol and 80 million gallons of biodiesel each year. The total financing of over US$50 million included funding from KPCB, The Angeleno Group, Khosla Ventures, Omninet Private Equity and Sage Capital Partners. KPCB also announced the KPCB Prize for Green Innovation, a US$100,000 annual prize awarded for the best technology or policy innovation in Greentech. A panel of five independent judges […]

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