Fracking concerns prompt shareholder questions for Exxon Mobil and other oil companies

Published: November 04, 2011
By John Funk,
The Plain Dealer
Cleveland.com



Concerns about "fracking" are moving from the oil field to the board room.

Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer

Companies that use hydraulic pressure to fracture shale rock to produce natural gas and oil now face a probable campaign questioning the technology, though it dates back more than 60 years.
 
This movement is more than a protest or public relations maneuver. It's a campaign that aims to mobilize shareholders, the individual investors and managers of funds that own shares in the companies.




The instigators are part of a new breed of investors who have emerged in the last decade, Timothy Smith, a senior vice president at Boston-based Walden Asset Management, told a crowd of about 130 people Thursday at a meeting of the First Friday Club of Cleveland, sponsored by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

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