Archive - May 28, 2009

By 1Sky interns Florencia Foxley and Emma Fernandez, soon-to-be graduates of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

We're really excited here at 1Sky for our first ever Regional Leadership Summit! We have been planning it for weeks: organizing meals, finding places to stay, and best of all, putting together an amazing training agenda. It's going to be a great opportunity for climate leaders to get to know each other and improve their activism skills.

Fossil fuel dinosaur ExxonMobil decided yesterday to boldly look back to the 19th century and double-down on the energy source we love to hate: oil:

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest refiner, said the transition away from oil-derived fuels is probably 100 years away.

Petroleum-based fuels including gasoline and diesel, as well as hydrocarbons such as coal and natural gas, will remain the dominant sources of energy for factories, offices, homes and cars for decades because there are no viable alternatives, Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told reporters today after Exxon Mobil’s annual shareholders meeting in Dallas.

A group of religious Chevron investors asked the giant oil company to track its products’ carbon contents and Chevron agreed to do it. Go sisters. According to a story today in Greenbiz from oil country in Dallas, Texas:

The Sisters of St. Dominic commended Chevron for being the largest company to voluntarily track product carbon content, and pointed out another oil giant -- ExxonMobil -- is still resisting similar proposals.

“As shareholders, we appreciate the difficulties that Chevron management faces in the long-term in confronting the task to reduce GHG emissions,” Sister Patricia Daly, executive director of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment and a member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), said in a statement. “The recent advancements Chevron has made in reducing its carbon footprint and preparing the company for viability in a low-carbon business environment cannot be ignored.”

Shareholder pressure is making a difference: More than 60 climate change resolutions were filed with nearly 60 U.S. companies and one Canadian company as part of the 2009 proxy season, according to the nonprofit group and 1Sky partner Ceres.