Investors seek better hydrofracking practices

A group of institutional investors has filed shareholder resolutions with some of the largest oil and gas companies in the nation asking for stronger action to prevent environmental damage from the hydrofracking those companies deploy to mine natural gas.

The Investor Environmental Health Network is a group of investment fund managers who use their leverage as investors to push for more responsible behavior from corporations in which they are shareholders. They are particularly concerned about the responsible use of toxic chemicals.

You can read the shareholder resolutions they have submitted on this and many other issues here and read about their concerns about hydrofracking here.

“High profile water contamination incidents, new litigation, and public protests that include calls for moratoria on natural gas permitting all suggest sizeable and rising business risks to companies and attendant threats to shareholder value,” said Richard Liroff, executive director of the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN), which helped coordinate the resolutions. “Shareholders need assurance that companies are candidly disclosing these risks and are adopting best management practices to minimize them.”

“Natural gas can play a major role in meeting our nation’s near-term climate and energy challenges, but hydraulic fracturing must be done in a way that protects the environment and public health,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the $9 trillion Investor Network on Climate Risk. “Investors believe that companies can profitably minimize fracking’s water contamination, gas leaks and other material risks by adopting best management practices and by phasing out the most toxic chemicals.”

About 800,000 acres of public and private land in Michigan have been leased to oil and gas companies to be used for hydrofracking, prompting concerns about pollution of both ground and surface waters.