Warren Buffett Doesn't Give A Shit About The Climate, Or The Future, Or Anything But Money

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The 85-year-old Buffett is a long-time Democrat who has supported liberal causes such as higher taxes on the wealthy, and he's drawn praise from environmental groups for investing billions of Berkshire Hathaway dollars in wind- and solar-generating plants. His company's electric utilities own a massive 7 percent of the nation's wind generation capacity and 6 percent of its solar. This month, Berkshire-owned MidAmerican Energy announced a plan to spend $3.6 billion through 2019 on wind energy, a big step toward the company's goal of delivering 100 percent clean energy in Iowa.

Yet at the same time, other Berkshire utilities have led fights to block rooftop solar development in Nevada and Utah and invested hundreds of millions to extend the life of coal-fired power plants, locking in carbon emissions for another generation. Through its holdings, Berkshire Hathaway also has about $6.7 billion invested in fossil fuel companies, including the oil refiner Phillips 66 and the Canadian tar sands operator Suncor Energy, Inc. His company's rail giant, BNSF, drew $4.6 billion in revenue from hauling coal last year.

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Berkshire Hathaway did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but in February Buffett addressed the climate risk resolution in a letter to shareholders. "It seems highly likely to me that climate change poses a major problem for the planet," Buffett wrote, but not a problem for profits. He closed by saying: "As a citizen, you may understandably find climate change keeping you up nights. As a homeowner in a low-lying area, you may wish to consider moving. But when you are thinking only as a shareholder of a major insurer, climate change should not be on your list of worries." Activist shareholders have sponsored resolutions at least three times since 2011 asking Berkshire Hathaway to set emissions-reductions goals, according to Ceres. Each time Buffett has opposed them, and they have never received more than 10.1 percent of the vote.

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The Nebraska Peace Foundation had scrounged together $180,000 to buy one Class A share of Berkshire Hathaway stock in 2014 so they could introduce a resolution. "There's not a whole lot you can do in Nebraska, but we have the 'Oracle of Omaha,'" said Tim Rinne, the state coordinator for Nebraskans for Peace, a social justice organization that controls the foundation. Rinne's group modeled its shareholder resolution on the Bank of England report, asking Berkshire Hathaway's insurance division to report on the risks posed by climate change and what the company is doing to address them.

In February, Buffett issued his response in a letter to shareholders, invoking what he called "Noah's Law: If an ark may be essential for survival, begin building it today, no matter how cloudless the skies appear." He claimed, however, that climate change has not yet produced the type of catastrophic weather that could pose a threat to his company's profits.

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http://insideclimatenews.org/news/25042016/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-climate-change-renewable-energy-solar-fossil-fuels-coal-bnsf