Feds: No shareholder vote on Okefenokee

Investor group wanted Home Depot, others to weigh in.

A federal agency has dealt a blow to efforts to secure commitments from Atlanta-based Home Depot and other major companies to reject products that could be made with titanium from a mine planned near Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Last year, shareholder proposals targeting Home Depot, paint retailer Sherwin-Williams and the chemical and materials manufacturer Chemours were submitted by Green Century Capital Management, the investment adviser to Green Century Funds, an environmentally friendly mutual fund manager.

The proposals sought to force shareholder votes on whether to require the companies to disclose the pros and cons of buying products containing titanium sourced near the Okefenokee, the largest wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi River.

Each shareholder proposal referenced the plans of Twin Pines Minerals, an Alabama-based company, which wants to mine 582 acres of land on Trail Ridge, the line of inland sand dunes that help hold water in the Okefenokee. Last month, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division released draft permits for Twin Pines’ project, putting it on the cusp of gaining approval after a five-year battle. The company also has indicated it has plans to mine more land on the swamp’s edge in the future.

Twin Pines and its hired consultants say the mine won’t harm the refuge; environmentalists claim the project poses an existential threat to North America’s largest blackwater swamp. Outside scientists, including some with the federal government, also say the company and EPD have not fully investigated the impacts of the mine.

The mineral sands Twin Pines is after will be used to make titanium dioxide, a whitener used in paint and other products. Home Depot and Sherwin-Williams are two of the largest paint retailers in the country, while Chemours is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of titanium dioxide coatings.

In the case of Chemours, which is in the material extraction business itself, Green Century’s proposal called for the company to evaluate the risks of mining near the swamp, too. In 2015, Chemours spun out of DuPont, which in the 1990s tried to develop a titanium mine near the Okefenokee. That project was abandoned after opposition from environmentalists and the federal government.

Chemours, Home Depot and Sherwin Williams had each notified the Securities and Exchange Commission last year that they did not plan to allow votes on the proposals, arguing that the measures were based on hypotheticals and sought to “micromanage” their operations. None of the companies said they had immediate plans to buy products or titanium itself sourced from near the Okefenokee.

In a letter last Friday, the SEC wrote that it agreed it with the companies’ views, effectively endorsing their plans to ignore the vote requests.

Green Century President Leslie Samuelrich said that while the group was disappointed that its proposals were rebuffed, they were happy to learn the companies “have no near-term plans or intent to support mining at this natural treasure.”

Green Century was joined or filed on behalf of the Felician Sisters of North America, an order of Catholic nuns who use shareholder advocacy to push for social change.

Spokesmen for Home Depot and Chemours declined to comment, while a request for comment from Sherwin-Williams was not immediately returned.

The SEC ruling comes at a pivotal time for the Twin Pines mine and the Okefenokee. The public comment period on Twin Pines’ draft permits closes April 9. Until then, submissions can be sent to EPD at TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov.

Bills in the Georgia General Assembly that could block or slow Twin Pines’ expansion plans also face long odds in the session’s waning hours. Thursday is the last day of the legislative session.

A bill that would temporarily pause permitting of mines like the one Twin Pines plans passed a House committee last week, but still needs a vote in the full House and Senate. The proposal has been criticized by some environmentalists, who say it does little to protect the Okefenokee.