The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Exxon is suing two activist investors to prevent their proposal calling for emissions cuts from coming to a vote of shareholders. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe says that in a complaint filed in Texas, Exxon accused investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This of abusing the process for proposing shareholder votes to advance their priorities with votes "calculated to diminish the company's existing business." Exxon already planned to exclude the proposal from appearing on the ballot at the company's annual meeting in May, arguing that U.S. securities law allows the company to toss petitions that "deal with matters relating to the company's ordinary business operations." The company said guidance from staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission was informal and subject to interpretation. Under the Biden administration, the SEC has adopted a stricter standard for company challenges to activist proposals, said Joshua White, a finance professor at Vanderbilt University. "This is Exxon saying, 'If the SEC is no longer an option for us to leave proposals off the proxy that we think will destroy value, then we're just going to go straight to the courts,'" he said.