The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied electric utility Exelon’s bid to exclude from its proxy statement and annual meeting Steve Milloy’s shareholder proposal on child labor in the electric vehicle supply chain. There is also a Politico report on my shareholder proposal today.
As reported by JunkScience.com in “Mean and Unclean: Electric Cars Powered by Child Labor in Africa,” the EV market is heavily dependent on brutal child labor. U.S. electric utilities, like Chicago-based Exelon Corp., plan to profit from these exploited children by promoting electric car use (and charging) in the US.
On November 18, 2020, Steve Milloy filed a shareholder proposal (below) with Exelon, requesting that the utility report on the extent to which its business plans involve or rely on child labor outside the US. The proposal would allow shareholders to vote on whether they want the company to do such report. The vote would occur at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders.
On December 23, 2020, Exelon (via its white shoe law firm Sidley Austin) wrote (Web | PDF) to the SEC requesting permission to exclude my proposal from its proxy statement, which is distributed to all shareholders and enables them to vote on shareholder proposals before or at the annual meeting.
Milloy responded to Exelon’s factually and legally deficient, self-contradictory and misleading request on January 6, 2021.
Exelon tried again to sandbag the SEC on January 19, 2021.
I responded on January 29, 2021 with this.
On March 2, 2021, the SEC released a slew of decisions, including one favorable to Milloy. The SEC denied Exelon’s request for permission to exclude Milloy’s proposal from its proxy statement.
Milloy’s proposal will appear as follows with a response from Exelon, which urges shareholders to vote against the proposal.
Exelon’s response, like its request to the SEC, attempts to whitewash its exploitation of child labor outside the US.
We’ll see what shareholders have to say at the annual meeting in April 27.
Update April 20, 2021: Here (and below) is a Politico.com report on the proposal.
