AFPM recently voiced its disappointment at the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear ExxonMobil’s challenge to the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a $236 million judgment against the company’s use of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) in the state’s gasoline supply in the 1990s.
Publicly owned companies, like many U.S. refineries, have a fiduciary responsibility (which is a legal obligation) to act in the best interest of their shareholders, and that extends to how companies spend their earnings. Often, earnings are spent on a combination of the following: direct dividends, stock buy back programs, paying down debt and capital investment projects.