Beyond Accountability

Our friend Steve Milloy is
back on the shareholder activist battleground, with a petition before the SEC to change
the rules for U.S. shareholders in foreign-based corporations:

“The purpose of the petition is to ensure that U.S.
investors in certain foreign companies have the same opportunities to
participate in corporate governance as the shareholders of domestic companies
already enjoy under SEC rules,” said Action Fund Management’s Steve Milloy. “U.S. investors
should not be relegated by their government to second-class status.”

Although this rule is long past due given the increasing
involvement of foreign corporations in U.S. domestic affairs, we call this
the ‘BP rule,’” said AFM’s Tom Borelli. “Given BP’s current legal problems that
have caused adverse economic and environmental impacts, and advocacy for
greenhouse gas regulation, all of which could harm U.S. investors, we consider
BP to be the ‘poster child’ for what happens when corporate management is
distracted from traditional business affairs by a desire to be perceived as
“socially responsible,” Borelli added.

CEI has had its own issues with SEC
rules, of course. Going forward, most of that work is going to be conducted
under the aegis of the new Center
for Entrepreneurship.

–Richard Morrison