ExxonMobil shareholders air grievances
Despite reporting giant profits, energy heavyweight faces an investor backlash led by Rockefeller heirs.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly-owned energy company, took up a series of proposals Wednesday made by shareholders who are dissatisfied with the company’s direction.
Shareholders have proposed a total of 19 resolutions, which will be voted on at the company’s annual meeting in Dallas. The proposals cover issues ranging from corporate structure and executive compensation to alternative energy and environmental protection.
Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s chairman and CEO, said the company has “followed a business model that focuses on the long term.”
Climate risk “warrants serious action,” Tillerson said. ExxonMobil is working to lower its “environmental footprint while generating long-term value for our shareholders,” he added.
One of the most contentious issues on the ballot is a resolution to separate the role of chairman and chief executive. Proponents say an independent chairman would serve as a counterbalance to Tillerson.
Some of the most vocal supporters of this resolution – including descendants of oil baron John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, which evolved into ExxonMobil – say Tillerson has not done enough to address the changing energy landscape.
“We believe our company is now lagging in creating solutions for the looming climate and energy crisis,” wrote Neva Rockefeller-Goodwin in support of a proposal to ExxonMobil’s board.
Rockefeller-Goodwin, who is a professor of economics and co-director of Global Development and Environmental Institute at Tufts University, urges the company to do more to develop alternative sources of energy.
If the company continues to rely on the sale of “hydrocarbon energy” it faces a “painful paradox in the future,” she wrote. “Part of John D. Rockefeller’s genius was in recognizing early on the need and opportunity of a transition to a better and cheaper fuel.”
In response, ExxonMobil argues that it has focused on becoming more efficient rather than investing in alternative sources that may not pay off. The company also argues that future regulation of greenhouse gases could have unforeseeable implications for present initiatives to address global warming.
The management of ExxonMobil (XOM, Fortune 500) counters that there’s no need for the split since the company’s board has a majority of independent members. 
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
