The sisters' investment could pay off Friday, when Chesapeake shareholders vote on a resolution cosponsored by the order that questions the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing, the controversial practice used to extract natural gas from formations like the Marcellus Shale.
The nonbinding resolution is unlikely to get a majority. But similar resolutions on "fracking" have struck a chord this year with shareholders at the annual meetings of other companies.
From 26 percent to 36 percent of shareholders at meetings held last month by Exxon Mobil Corp., Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., and EOG Resources Inc. supported resolutions calling for risk assessments of hydraulic fracturing. EOG is the company whose Clearfield County well blew out Thursday night.
On May 20, in the most impressive vote yet on fracking, 42 percent of Williams Cos. Inc. shareholders voiced their concern over the practice. The Tulsa, Okla., company is an active Marcellus operator in northeastern Pennsylvania.
"Forty-two percent, that's phenomenal," said Michael Lent, chief investment officer for New York-based Veris Wealth Partners L.L.C., an institutional investor that frequently sides with social and environmental activists on shareholder initiatives.
Though shareholder resolutions on social or environmental issues typically generate limited support, Lent said activists had learned to attract institutional investors by framing their resolutions in business terms: Do a company's practices pose a legal or regulatory risk?
"If you get a substantial number of institutional shareholders to act, often that gets the company to act," he said. "Any time you get more than 10 percent support, it's a remarkable achievement."
The organizers of the resolutions say they send a strong message.
