CHICAGO (Bloomberg) — Shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, rejected a resolution calling on the company to cut greenhouse gases and voted to retain director Michael Boskin.A proposal for Exxon Mobil to develop a plan to reduce emissions from its refineries and the fuels it makes received 31 percent in balloting at the company's annual meeting in Dallas. Initiatives to cap pay for top executives, including chief executive officer Rex Tillerson, at $500,000 a year and increase investment in ethanol got less than 8 percent of votes.

Boskin, chairman of the board committee that deals with environmental issues, survived a challenge by an investor group that included the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest US pension fund. Other holders said Boskin deserved support after the company's shares jumped 36 percent last year, the stock's biggest annual gain since 1980.

"We're very happy with how the company has performed," Harry Wickes, a retired dentist from Fort Worth, Texas, said in an interview. Wickes attended the meeting with his wife Violet, who has been a shareholder for 27 years. "They've been very good to the shareholders."

Exxon Mobil, based in Irving, Texas, was pressured by pension funds, religious groups and environmentalists in the weeks leading up to today's meeting. Critics included California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, the Episcopal Church, New York City Comptroller William Thompson and Greenpeace.

Boskin, a Stanford University economist and who led the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 1989 to 1993, received 93 percent support, down from 94.5 percent last year. Stanford is home to a global-warming research project to which Exxon has pledged $100 million.

Boskin, 61, was criticised by Calpers and more than two dozen other institutional managers representing more than $1 trillion in investment funds after he refused five invitations during the past 18 months to have face-to-face discussions on climate change. Boskin has been a director since 1996.

"I don't understand the arrogance of not wanting to talk to people, particularly large investors," Lockyer, a Calpers board member, said in a telephone interview. "At some point, oil companies that fail to plan for a non-oil world are going to become dinosaurs. This is a strategy to die."

Exxon Mobil said Boskin arranged a day-long meeting in July 2006 between 19 representatives of the investors and three Exxon vice-presidents to discuss the issue. Another meeting is planned for later this year, company spokesman Gantt Walton said yesterday.

"Dr. Boskin has communicated with these particular shareholders four different times," Kenneth Cohen, who oversees Exxon Mobil's contributions to public-policy groups, said today in an interview in Dallas. "Because these issues are so important, he did it in writing."

About 35 environmental activists gathered across the street from the meeting at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, holding a banner that said, "Protect the people, protect the planet." Exxon Mobil discontinued the practice of distributing donuts to protesters after the 2005 annual meeting. The protest ended after 45 minutes when a thunderstorm erupted.

The company's stock increased 47 percent since Tillerson, 55, became CEO in January 2006. Exxon Mobil earned $39.5 billion in profit last year, a record for any US corporation. The company's 2006 sales of $335 billion exceeded the gross national products of countries including Norway, South Africa and Ireland.