Berkshire Hathaway

See Buffet also, bnsf (coal)

==

desmog via drilled 10b$ permian play

---

an 7 24

Two Senate Democrats have published a list of roughly three dozen lavish gifts Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas received from right-wing billionaires during his time on the Court.

On the eve of the Independence Day holiday, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Thomas for "possible violations of ethics and tax laws" in his "repeated and willful omissions" of gifts from wealthy benefactors.

"The scale of the potential ethics violations by Justice Thomas, and the willful pattern of disregard for ethics laws, exceeds the conduct of other government officials investigated by the Department of Justice for similar violations," Whitehouse and Wyden wrote. "The breadth of the omissions uncovered to date, and the serious possibility of additional tax fraud and false statement violations by Justice Thomas and his associates, warrant the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate this misconduct."

READ MORE:Expert: Clarence Thomas could face 'criminal prosecution' by not paying taxes on gifts

On page 14 of the PDF Whitehouse posted to his Senate website, there are two lists of gifts to Thomas. The first list describes gifts from far-right real estate magnate Harlan Crow, and the second list shows gifts from other wealthy sponsors, like entrepreneur Anthony Welters — who "loaned" Thomas a luxury RV and then later forgave the loan — and billionaire Wayne Huizenga.

The gifts from Crow date back to 2003, and list excursions like "Yacht trip to Russia and the Baltics" and Helicopter to Yusipov Palace, St. Petersburg." Out of the roughly two dozen gifts Crow gave to Thomas, four are private school tuition payments for his grand-nephew. Many of Crow's other gifts were private jet flights and yacht cruises, including one Sens. Whitehouse and Wyden described as "around Greek islands."

And out of the gifts on the second list, three were from Huizenga, two were from Welters, and five were from former Berkshire Hathaway board member David Sokol. Billionaire Warren Buffett, who owns Berkshire Hathaway, forced Sokol out in 2011 after he learned that Sokol bought a stake in a company he later convinced Buffett's company to buy. Buffett called Sokol's actions "inexplicable" and "inexcusable."

"No government official should be above the law. Supreme Court justices are properly expected to obey laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety and to comply with the federal tax code," the senators wrote. "We therefore request that you appoint a Special Counsel authorized to investigate potential criminal violations by Justice Thomas under the disclosure, false statement, and tax laws; pursue leads of related criminal violations by donors, lenders and intermediate corporate entities; and determine whether any such loans and gifts were provided pursuant to a coordinated enterprise or plan."

READ MORE:Clarence Thomas cut off contact with man he raised 'as a son' — now he faces decades in prison

In 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Davide Cay Johnston commented that it was possible Thomas could face "criminal prosecution" by not paying taxes on the previously undisclosed gifts from Crow and others. He opined that any lower-level court judge would not be able to avoid the charges if they failed to pay taxes on gifts worth millions of dollars.

"What Clarence Thomas has done would result in not only any judges in America being removed from the bench, but there is a good chance it would result in criminal prosecution for income tax fraud and for false filings in his mandatory financial ethics disclosure statements," Johnston said in December.

Last month, anti-corruption watchdog group Fix the Court totaled Thomas' gifts and found that the conservative jurist had received approximately $4 million in gifts dating back to 2004 – far more than any other justice on the Supreme Court. And of the 193 gifts Thomas received, he only listed 27 on his required financial disclosure reports.

Click here to read Whitehouse and Wyden's full letter to Garland.

:{READ MORE:

The Sacramento Bee

Pension funds CalPERS, CalSTRS must divest from fossil fuels

How California's pension funds can invest in the future by ... in California are demanding divestment and standing up for climate justice.

.1 month ago

MarketWatch 4 22

CalPERS backs Berkshire shareholder measure to remove Warren Buffett as chairman

Influential pension fund also backs proposal for Berkshire to report its climate impact. Warren Buffett, seen speaking in 2013, has been both...

sac bee

OPINION AND COMMENTARY

Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.

VIEWPOINTS How California’s pension funds can invest in the future by divesting from fossil fuels BY LENA GONZALEZ SPECIAL TO THE SACRAMENTO BEE APRIL 20, 2022

The CalPERS building in downtown Sacramento. JAY MATHER Sacramento Bee file

As the state and economy make the transition to cleaner energy sources to help reach a global goal of zero net emissions by mid-century to stop global warming, a growing number of institutions worldwide are choosing to divest trillions of dollars from fossil fuel companies. This is the ethically and financially responsible choice, and more union members in California are demanding divestment and standing up for climate justice.The California Faculty Association passed a resolution calling for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to divest from fossil fuels. Their members count on them to make healthy financial decisions about their funds for retirement. The faculty group was joined in calling for divestment by state associations representing higher education faculty, the academic senates at California State University and the University of California, and local chapters of unions representing teachers in cities from Los Angeles to Oakland. ...

ANTI-SOLAR AT LEAST 2X

419 icn

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10042019/iowa-solar-fee-warren-buffett-midamerican-energy-who-gets-hurt-small-businesses

Entrepreneurs Built Iowa’s Solar Economy. A Utility’s Push for Solar Fees Could Shut Them Down.

BY: DAN GEARINO

Lawmakers are considering a new fee for rooftop solar at the urging of a utility owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.Meet the small business owners whose futures are at stake.

FAIRFIELD, Iowa — Walking between rows of solar panels in the largest project their company has ever done, the co-owners of Ideal Energy feel a mix of pride and unease. One giant task is almost done, and many more are just ahead.

"I couldn't have done it with anyone else," said Troy Van Beek, an entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL, about his wife and business partner, Amy Van Beek.

Over the past 10 years, this couple has been a leader in launching a solar industry in Iowa, showing how entrepreneurs can build a market almost from scratch.

Now, they and other small business owners are in a political fight for their future as they try to keep Iowa lawmakers from passing legislation that they fear could kill the state's still young rooftop solar industry.

Customers' utility-bill savings would cover the cost of adding solar. It's part of a national wave of utility-backed plans that would reduce the financial benefits of home solar, to the benefit of utilities. The leading supporter of the Iowa bill is MidAmerican Energy, a utility owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

The entire state of Iowa had less than 1 megawatt of solar installed in 2009 when the Van Beeks started Ideal Energy. Nearly all of the country's solar development was in the sunniest states or in states with substantial subsidies for rooftop solar, of which Iowa was neither. Today, Iowa is up to 96 megawatts, the majority of it installed on homes and businesses.

Ideal Energy is one of about a half-dozen Iowa solar installers that entered the market when it was nearly nonexistent and built it project by project....

http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/02/buffett-rejects-climate-change-report/

Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway shareholders voted overwhelmingly against a shareholder proposal to create a report citing the climate change risks for its insurance companies.

Buffett, the so-called “Seer of Omaha” for his company’s S&P beating returns, said he doesn’t think climate change creates serious risks for Berkshire’s insurance business and also refused to make a public statement in favor of reducing fossil fuel use.

A study by Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP) recently found that nearly half of the world’s top 500 investors are doing nothing to mitigate climate risks in their investments. AODP CEO Julian Polter said pension funds and insurers that ignore climate change were “gambling with the savings and financial security of hundreds of millions of people.”

Warren Buffet's advice to shareholders at annual meeting: Avoid envy and costly fees. https://t.co/4A7q40ezAu

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 30, 2016

For a deeper dive:

News: AP, Reuters, Daily Caller, Bloomberg

Commentary: Christian Science Monitor, Christina Beck analysis; CleanTechnica, James Ayre analysis

==

==

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20141023/us-insurers-meet-climate-risk-deeply-troubling-silence

ven though insurers are in the business of protecting others from risk, a new report shows that most major United States players are turning a blind eye to a serious threat to their own bottom line—climate change.

"It's shocking...most of the industry continues to be far behind where they need to be in terms of understanding and articulating [climate risk]," said study author Cynthia McHale, insurance program director at the Boston-based nonprofit Ceres.

This stands in stark contrast to other big businesses, from carmaker General Motors to candymaker Mars Inc., that are increasingly taking a public stand on climate change and devoting resources to combat it.

The heads of insurance departments in five states—California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York and Washington—required large insurers to fill out climate risk disclosure surveys in 2013. The states wanted to know how the companies regard climate change, and what they might do in the face of it.

Ceres, which works with investors and businesses on issues concerning the environment and sustainability, organized, analyzed and ranked the responses,which are publicly available.

The participating 330 companies make up 87 percent of the American insurance industry. They are mostly U.S.-based and include both insurers and reinsurers, companies that cover against other insurers' losses. All companies fall under three large umbrellas of business: property, life or health.

According to the report "Insurer Climate Risk Disclosure Survey Report & Scorecard" released this week, around 90 percent of participating companies have yet to issue a public statement on their approach to climate change. To this point, the report said: "This near total silence on climate change is deeply troubling and is thwarting constructive public engagement on appropriate responses."

American-based Allstate and Europe's Zurich are the only two major companies that have issued such statements from America's top 10 list of property insurers.

State Farm, the country's No. 1 property insurer, has remained silent. So have Berkshire Hathaway Group and Nationwide, two other companies in the top 10. These three companies are also among a majority of property insurers whose top executives don't publicly acknowledge the issue.

The situation is more grave for life and health insurers.

Despite increasing evidence that changes in climate, such as longer and more intense heat waves, are likely to affect human health and lifespan, the report said these "insurers show widespread indifference to climate risk, both in regard to their core business" and their investments.

But it's not all bad news. Nine companies have emerged as clear leaders in the industry and 50 more are taking steps in the right direction.

The nine top companies include four American companies (ACE, The Hartford, Prudential and XL Group) and five international companies (Allianz, Munich Re, Sompo Japan, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance).

McHale told InsideClimate News, "When you do have a breakaway group like that...industry competition kicks in and it can sort of create a bit of a tipping point.

"We [at Ceres] are of the mind that competition rather than science is going to move this industry at the end of the day and motivate insurers to take visible action on climate."

One of those leaders is Swiss Re, a major reinsurer based in Zurich. The company started tracking the issue closely 25 years ago when it considered protecting insurers against extreme weather events.

The company's mindset is "anything that can potentially make [extreme weather] worse is something we need to understand," and climate change fit the bill, said Mark Way, head of Swiss Re's sustainability department.

"We spend a lot of time peering over the horizon to see what new risks are coming," Way said.

Franklin Nutter, president of the industry trade group Reinsurance Association of America, points out that European reinsurers like Swiss Re have a corporate culture that's more open to "forward thinking" on emerging risks like climate change than many American counterparts.

Some of the risks bring new business opportunities. An example is the property insurer The Hartford, based in Hartford, Conn. Another Ceres-named leader, Hartford's leadership on the issue includes offering insurance coverage to renewable energy companies.

These two companies also have initiatives to limit their own carbon footprints.

In fact, so do many of the companies surveyed. But unlike Hartford and Swiss Re, these other companies often said their plans were motivated to save money and don't acknowledge the climate implications.

"It's quite hypocritical," said study author McHale. "It really begs the question: Why would you care if [you say] climate change isn't real and matters?"

Spreading the Blame

Next year, insurers operating in Illinois, and possibly New Mexico and Maryland, will be required to fill out the climate risk disclosure survey.

Every time a new state signs on, it's a sign that their insurance leaders "are really looking at this and thinking about this and publicly coming forward saying climate risk is really relevant to the insurance industry," said McHale.

The fact that only a handful of the 50 states require this survey suggests regulators are not yet fully committed to addressing climate change.

Nutter hinted at this when he explained that an American insurer who doesn't consider climate change as a risk to a business customer might simply blame the regulators.

"The regulatory system will not let [companies] factor in a risk or price rate for climate change," he said. "It's too speculative."

It's not just state regulators, apparently. National politics is also at play. Mark Way, the Swiss Re executive, said, "it would be a lot easier [for other companies to discuss the issue] if the leadership from D.C. was less adversarial on the topic at the policy level." He also called for more formal guidance on ways the industry could and should be approaching climate change.

American insurers and reinsurers often see climate change as a "red flag for energy policy," said McHale. These companies will actively talk about extreme weather and behind closed doors they are even talking about changes to observed extreme weather, said McHale, but they are reluctant to discuss the potential drivers of that weather, namely climate change.

In Europe, "it's such a dichotomy," she said. For example, last year, the insurance and risk think tank Geneva Association put out a statement on climate change that affirmed the latest science. Of the 66 major insurance companies that backed it, less than a handful were from the U.S.

See Also

Big Business Climate Change Movement Grows in Size and Heft

==

BNSF,owned by Warren Buffet, carries up to 70 percent of all

the crude-by-rail traffic in North America today. This railroad

alone expects to load one million barrels per day onto its

network by the end of 2014.

==

Recently, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) disclosed its 10.9% stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) worth US$3.4 billion. To no one’s surprise, investors around the globe jumped on the Warren Buffett express. Burlington’s share price rose 6.5% on the announcement.

And Buffett didn’t stop there. Berkshire Hathaway confirmed it has also acquired stakes in two remaining North American railroads. The largest American railroads remaining are Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), CSX (NYSE: CSX) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC). Our neighbors to the north offer Canadian National [TSE: CNR].

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway

From SourceWatch

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. Help expose the truth about the tobacco industry.

This article is part of the **Coal Issues** portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy.

Berkshire Hathaway is Warren Buffett's company. Berkshire Hathaway owns a wide range of subsidiary companies, including Fruit of the Loom (T-shirt and underwear manufacturer), Geico automobile insurance, See's Candies, Johns Mansville and The Pampered Chef.[1]

In 1995, when the Wall Street Journal exposed how certain corporations were starting to investigate journalists' private lives and rank them on how favorably they write about companies, Charles Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said, "Berkshire Hathaway hates the whole idea with a passion...Our attitude is that if you deserve good press, then in the long run, you'll get good press." Corporations named in the article as engaging in the practice included Microsoft, Philip Morris and MacDonald's.^{[1]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-0)

Directors (2007) ^{[2]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-1)

• Warren Buffett - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• Charles Munger - Vice Chairman, Chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation and Chief Executive Officer of Wesco Financial Corporation
• Donald Keough - Allen & Company, Inc.
• Thomas Murphy - ABC, Inc.
• Howard Buffett - BioImages
• Ronald Olson - Munger, Tolles & Olson
• Walter Scott, Jr. - Communications Inc.
• Charlotte Guyman - Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
• David Gottesman - First Manhattan Co.
• William Gates III - Microsoft Corporation
• Susan Decker - Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Directors (1999) ^{[3]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-2)

• Susan T. Buffett
• Howard G. Buffett
• Malcolm G. Chace
• Ronald L. Olson
• Walter Scott, Jr.
• Warren E. Buffett, Chairman And Ceo
• Charles T. Munger, Vice Chairman
• Marc D. Hamburg, Vice President, Treasurer
• Daniel J. Jaksich, Controller
• Forrest N. Krutter, Secretary

Berkshire Hathaway and tobacco

Documents indicate that Philip Morris looked to Berkshire Hathaway as a model for ways to improve its corporate image with stockholders and the public. A pamphlet titled "Protecting and Enhancing Your Company's Reputation" (estimated date 2001) was found in the files of Elizabeth Culley, of Philip Morris Corporate Affairs Department, circa 2001.^{[4]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-3). A 1992 memo from Nicholas Rolli of PM's financial department shows PM modeled its shareholder letters after Berkshire Hathaway's model, also considering those of General Electric, Sara Lee and Campbell.^{[5]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-4)

Berkshire Hathaway and coal

Existing coal-fired power plants

As shown in this map, through its MidAmerican Energy subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway operated 11 coal plants in 2005 with 29 generating units and a total of 10,282 MW of capacity. Among chief executive officers of companies owning coal-fired generating capacity, Warren Buffett ranked sixth after the the CEOs of American Electric Power, Southern Company, Duke Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Jim Bridger Steam Plant Click **here** for more information. 42.326658, -96.379203, George Neal Station North Click **here** for more information. 39.1667, -111.0261, Hunter Power Plan Click **here** for more information. 39.378222, -111.079722, Huntington Power Plant Click **here** for more information. 41.185592, -95.842112, Council Bluffs Energy Center Click **here** for more information. 42.839239, -105.777984, Dave Johnston Power Plant Click **here** for more information. 41.48381, -90.82007, Louisa Generating Station Click **here** for more information. 41.757232, -110.597654, Naughton Power Plant Click **here** for more information. 44.288754, -105.384951, Wyodak Power Plant Click **here** for more information. 39.727222, -110.863333, Carbon Power Plant Click **here** for more information. 41.54075, -90.451074, Riverside Generating Station (Iowa) Click **here** for more information.

Here is a list of MidAmerican's coal power plants:^{[6]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-EIA-5)^{[7]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-6)^{[8]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-7)

In 2006, MidAmerican's 11 coal-fired power plants emitted 69.0 million tons of CO₂ (1.15% of all U.S. CO₂ emissions) and 177,000 tons of SO₂ (1.18% of all U.S. SO₂ emissions).

Council Bluffs Energy Center Unit 4 is an operational coal plant near Council Bluffs, Iowa and the Missouri River that began operating in 2007. Berkshire Hathaway is the owner of MidAmerican Energy, which owns PacifiCorp. The two companies own 29 coal plants totalling 10,281 megawatts of capacity, making Berkshire Hathaway the sixth largest owner of coal capacity in the United States.^{[9]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-8)

Plant cancellations

In 2007, PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of his MidAmerican Energy, cancelled six proposed coal-fired power plants. These included Utah's Intermountain Power Project Unit 3, Jim Bridger Unit 5, and four proposed plants previously included in PacifiCorp's Integrated Resource Plan. The cancellations came in the wake of pressure from regulators and citizen groups, including a petition drive organized by Salt Lake City commercial real estate broker Alexander Lofft and directed at Buffett personally. The 1,600 petitioners, who described themselves in a letter to Buffett as "a collection of citizens, business owners and managers, service professionals, public servants, and organization representatives ... your friends and new customers here in Utah," explained that, in their view, any further expansion of coal generation in Utah would "compromise our health, obscure our viewsheds, shrink and contaminate our watersheds, and thin out our most beloved snowpack," concluding that "our attractiveness as a place to live and work is also threatened, and so is our economic competitiveness as a major metro area and a state, compromising our recent gains in income and property values."^{[10]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berkshire_Hathaway#cite_note-9)

Contact

Web: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

• Key private sector decision makers on coal
• Gregory E. Abel
• Thomas Sokol
• Marmon Group

Other resources

• "The Education of Warren Buffett: Why did the guru cancel six coal plants?" Ted Nace, Gristmill, April 15, 2008

References

1. ↑ Reverse Gotcha: Companies are paying big fees to get news about beat reporters Moss, M. Wall Street Journal. November 10, 1995. Philip Morris Bates No. 2046478057/8059
2. ↑ Berkshire Hathaway, BusinessWeek, accessed December 9, 2007.
3. ↑ Directors, Berkshire Hathaway, accessed December 9, 2007.
4. ↑ [http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/wux00c00 Protecting and Enhancing Your Company's Reputation, Pamphlet by Berkshire Hathaway and PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Philip Morris collection, Bates No. 2085127335/7340, February 2001 (estimated date)
5. ↑ 1992 Annual Report: Letter to Stockholders. Memorandum. Rolli NM. December 23, 1992. Philip Morris Bates No. 2024153788
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `` tag; no text was provided for refs named EIA
7. ↑ Environmental Integrity Project, Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants, July 2007.
8. ↑ Dig Deeper, Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed June 2008.
9. ↑ Existing U.S. Coal Plants
10. ↑ "The Education of Warren Buffett: Why did the guru cancel six coal plants?" Ted Nace, Gristmill, April 15, 2008

This article may include information from Tobacco Documents Online.