WRAPUP 2-Big oil meetings draw activists, some protest votes

* Environmental report gets 7 pct Chevron investor support

* At Exxon, proposals rejected, protests muted

* Pressure shows firms now operate in "global fishbowl"
(Adds details from meeting, other votes, comment from analyst)

By Braden Reddall and Anna Driver

SAN RAMON, Calif./DALLAS, May 27 (Reuters) - Chevron Corp
(CVX.N) investors rejected a call for a report on environmental
laws where it operates, disappointing activists and funds
worried by a $27 billion damages claim against it in Ecuador.

The closely watched proposal at its annual meeting on
Wednesday, for a report on how regulations in host countries
protect people and the environment, won the support of 7 percent
of shareholders, according to preliminary results from Chevron.

While activists addressed management and shareholders at
the meeting at Chevron's headquarters in San Ramon, California,
about five or six dozen people gathered outside to protest.

A few held up a large sign picturing Chief Executive David
O'Reilly next to the words "I will pretend to care about the
environment," in the style of a Chevron advertising campaign.

Larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) remains a favorite
target of environmentalists and politicians, but a drop in oil
prices in the past year muted dissent at its meeting in Texas.

Chevron faces the massive claim over pollution in Ecuador,
with a ruling due this year, and that was one issue cited by
the mostly state and municipal funds in the rejected proposal.

Chevron, which says votes on similar issues at past
meetings got support of 8 percent to 10 percent, had criticized
'Item 10' as part of a campaign led by trial lawyers to force
the company to settle the Ecuador case. [ID:nN20512950]

Plaintiffs in the case, now a decade and a half old, say
Texaco -- bought by Chevron in 2001 -- damaged their health by
dumping billions of gallons of dirty water from 1972 to 1992.

"I think that the senior management of the company is
hiding the truth from the board and from shareholders," Luis
Yanza, founder of the Amazon Defense Coalition representing
communities in the polluted rainforest, said at the meeting.

But O'Reilly told a previous speaker that any suffering in
Ecuador was the responsibility of state-run Petroecuador. "Yes,
there are definitely problems in the area in which you live,
but these problems are not the problems of Texaco," he said.

The Dublin-born executive, chairman and CEO since 2000, was
less conciliatory with others, saying an "alternative" annual
report, "The True Cost of Chevron," cited by a few speakers was
"insulting to our employees, and it deserves the trash can."

Kirk Herbertson, of Washington, D.C.-based environmental
think tank World Resources Institute, said the pressure on
Chevron showed companies now operate in a "global fishbowl"
since communicating is so much easier for the average person.

"Even the fact that there was a shareholder resolution
demonstrates the power of reputational risk," Herbertson said.
"A few years ago, you wouldn't really have seen a company as
large as Chevron responding to community concerns."

Among other measures, more than a quarter of shareholders
backed both a proposal for a report on Chevron's selection of
countries, given its presence in Myanmar, and one for a human
rights policy.

FOSSIL FUEL FUTURE

As for Exxon, it successfully fended off proposals related
to governance, climate change and renewable fuels.

"Certainly for the foreseeable future, the world is going
to continue to rely on fossil fuels," CEO Rex Tillerson told
the meeting in Dallas, where three protesters gathered outside
holding signs encouraging Exxon to stop global "war - ming."

Some investors say Exxon must sharpen its focus on
renewable fuels and climate change sooner rather than later as
cutting carbon emissions becomes a priority for governments.

"Data shows that if Exxon Mobil remains committed to its
present path, burning fossil fuels, it will greatly harm poor
nations, and their people most of all," Ann Rockefeller Roberts
said.

Only 30 percent of shareholders backed a binding proposal
to establish an independent chairman, which was opposed by
Exxon. A similar measure, pushed hard by some members of the
Rockefeller family at last year's meeting, also failed. John D.
Rockefeller founded Exxon precursor Standard Oil Co in 1870.

In his address to shareholders, Tillerson said Exxon would
stick with investing to help meet global energy demand, a
strategy he said had helped it weather the current downturn.

Activists targeting oil companies had more success in
Europe recently. At Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSa.L) annual meeting
last week, investors rejected the oil major's executive pay
plan in a rare move that reflected growing frustration at high
corporate payouts in the economic downturn. [ID:nLJ945281]
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Ramon and Anna Driver in
Dallas; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Gary Hill and Matthew
Lewis)