Magaziner calling for energy companies to disclose lobbying activity

SETH MAGAZINER, Rhode Island's general treasurer, wants the energy companies that the state Rhode Island pension fund invests in to disclose their lobbying activities.  / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
SETH MAGAZINER, Rhode Island's general treasurer, wants the energy companies that the state Rhode Island pension fund invests in to disclose their lobbying activities. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – The $7.7 billion Rhode Island pension fund will join shareholders of energy companies ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Devon Energy in co-filing proposals requiring the corporations to disclose their lobbying activities, R.I. General Treasurer Seth Magaziner said Monday.
“As shareholders, we have a right to know whether energy executives are using our money to influence lawmakers,” Magaziner said in a statement. “I am particularly concerned that energy companies are using investors’ dollars to block policies that will protect coastal areas like Rhode Island from the threat of climate change.”
According to information from Magaziner’s office, each company would be required to report its lobbying policies and procedures, including payments for grassroots communication and organizing at national, state and local levels, under terms of the proposals.
“As investors who share your commitment to confronting and addressing climate change, we believe there are additional actions you can take to improve the company’s long-term financial position that are consistent with smart climate policy,” Magaziner wrote in a Nov. 22 letter to ConocoPhillips informing the firm of the filing.
He wrote that the letter was written out of concern that actions taken by some of ConocoPhillips’ national trade associations are “inconsistent” with shareholders’ interests in reducing risks posed by global climate change. He wrote that 35,123 shares of ConocoPhillips stock are held, and his office supports the proxy resolution filed by Walden Asset Management.
“A comprehensive report and improved transparency on expenditures related to lobbying and other political activity will give shareholders the confidence we need that your company is truly positioning itself for long-term growth in a carbon constrained world,” Magaziner continued.
Magaziner spokesman Evan England said resolutions for the other three companies are expected to be filed in December. England said the state of Connecticut is among the co-filers on the ConocoPhillips petition.

No posts to display

1 COMMENT

  1. All this nitwit neophyte with no experience does is write letters of no substance.And the pension fund is not 7.7B either—he keeps rounding it up to look good and make his 3 year bullsh**** spread look like he is hitting the target…it went from 7.5 to a little over 7.6 and its losing a million dollars a day with an unrealistic and unattainable 7.5% return. He is one and done and he can write all the ineffective letters he wants because he is diverting from the real focus to which he is negligent in his fiduciary due diligence. We still have bad investments-ones that are losing pensioners money every day and he does nothing…