WASHINGTON—Nearly
27 percent of ConocoPhillips shareholders today 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, followed last year's first-ever shareholder
resolution regarding Alaska's western Arctic. The 26.7 percent vote in
favor of the resolution represents the highest vote ever given by
shareholders on a question of wilderness preservation.
"The shareholders are sending an unmistakable message to ConocoPhillips
about the importance of Teshekpuk Lake and about the company's broader
environmental policies," said Zack Brown, 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 unique areas."
Teshekpuk Lake 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.
The fight over the fate of Alaska's western Arctic is featured in this
month's National Geographic.
"This is a landmark day for Teshekpuk Lake and for all threatened
ecosystems around the world," said Andrew Shalit of Green Century
Capital Management. "Two years in a row, more than a 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 26.7 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 the
agenda for ConocoPhillips' management in the coming year.
