DuPont shareholders sent a clear message to the company today when 7.8 percent voted in favor of a shareholder resolution
asking DuPont to report on the potential for improving the safety of
its chemical plants by reducing the use of extremely hazardous
chemicals and taking other similar steps.
According
to EPA filings, DuPont operates 30 plants which in total put more than
10 million Americans at risk of death or injury in case of an accident
or terrorist attack. These plants use large quantities of some of the
most dangerous chemicals in existence, chemicals such as hydrofluoric
acid, chlorine, phosgene, and sulfur trioxide. Until today, DuPont had
never disclosed the existence of this danger to shareholders.
“DuPont’s
operations are putting Americans in danger,” said Andrew Shalit,
Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Green Century Capital Management,
the environmentally responsible investment firm that sponsored the
resolution. “The company has failed to disclose these dangers to its
shareholders, and they have failed to articulate plans for reducing the
number of people who they put at risk. While we appreciate the
company’s security programs, they need to do more to remove the risk by
reducing the use of these chemicals.”
This
shareholder vote came at a time of heightened concern over chemical
plant security and continued inaction by the U.S. Congress. The U.S.
Army Surgeon General has called chemical plant security second only to
biological terrorism for the risk it places on Americans.
“Chemical
security can’t be fixed by adding more guards or building more fences,”
said Meghan Purvis of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education
Fund, which has issued reports on chemical plant security. “The only
foolproof way to address the problem is to reduce the use of these
extremely hazardous chemicals. We hope DuPont will step forward with a
plan for doing that.”
This
is the first time that shareholders at any company have been asked to
vote on matters related to chemical security. The resolution had been
challenged by DuPont, but the SEC decided to allow it to move forward.
A similar resolution will be voted on at Dow Chemical’s annual meeting
on May 11th in Midland, Michigan.
Green
Century Capital Management (GCCM) is an environmentally responsible
investment firm which focuses on environmentally progressive companies
and uses shareholder advocacy to improve corporate environmental
responsibility.
U.S.
PIRG is the national lobby office for the state Public Interest
Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public
interest advocacy organizations.
----
Resolution Text:
Report on Increasing Inherent Security of Chemical Facilities
Whereas:
Security at chemical facilities has become one of the most important
issues facing our country. Across the United States, thousands of
facilities use and store extremely hazardous substances in large
quantities that pose major risks to surrounding communities, employees,
and the environment;
Whereas:
According to Risk Management Plans (RMPs) filed by companies with the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at over 100 of these facilities
more than one million people live in the area where they could be
seriously injured or killed in the event of a catastrophic incident
such as a chemical accident or terrorist attack;
Whereas:
A report by the Army Surgeon General in 2003 ranked an attack on a
chemical plant second only to a widespread biological attack in the
magnitude of its hazard to the public. Numerous other government
agencies and private groups have published warnings about these
dangers. ;
Whereas:
It is often possible for a company to increase the inherent security of
a facility and decrease the number of people at risk of harm by
switching to chemicals that are less acutely hazardous, reducing the
quantities of extremely hazardous substances stored at facilities,
altering the processes used at facilities, or locating facilities
outside densely populated areas;
Whereas:
Improving physical security through such steps as hiring additional
security guards and building perimeter fences will not reduce the
number of people endangered by a facility;
Whereas:
DuPont operates thirty-three facilities in the United States that
combined put a total of over nine million people at risk in the event
of a catastrophic release of chemicals caused by an accident or
terrorist attack, according to an independent report analyzing RMPs
filed by our Company with the EPA as of 2004.
These facilities use large quantities of extremely hazardous substances
including hydrofluoric acid, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, oleum (fuming
sulfuric acid), phosgene, sulfur trioxide, and titanium tetrachloride;
Whereas:
Shareholders know little about our Company’s efforts to prevent and
reduce the magnitude of catastrophic incidents at its facilities. Our
Company’s most recent 10-K and 10-Q filings contain no information on
the possibility of such incidents and their potential impact on the
Company or on employees, surrounding communities, and the environment;
RESOLVED,
shareholders request that the independent directors of the Board of
DuPont prepare a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary
information, on the implications of a policy for reducing potential
harm and the number of people in danger from potential catastrophic
chemical releases by increasing the inherent security of DuPont
facilities through such steps as reducing the use and storage of
extremely hazardous substances, reengineering processes, and locating
facilities outside high-population areas. The report should be
available to investors by the 2007 annual meeting.
