undefined | Berkshire electric utility's court win could save it billions

PacifiCorp, the Berkshire Hathaway‑owned utility, won a partial victory in an Oregon Court of Appeals decision that sent the James class‑action lawsuit back to the trial court for reconsideration. The appellate judges said the jury instruction used in the 2023 trial— which had found PacifiCorp liable for failing to shut down power lines during a windstorm that sparked four wildfires and caused extensive property loss — was improperly applied to a broader class of thousands of plaintiffs. As a result, the damages awards that have already totaled more than $1 billion in subsequent “mini‑trials” may have to be re‑evaluated, and the plaintiffs will likely need to prove liability for each specific property again. PacifiCorp welcomed the ruling, describing the litigation process as prejudicial, and said it remains open to resolving reasonable claims while continuing to defend against unsupported ones.

In other Berkshire‑related news, Berkshire Hathaway Energy faced a proposed antitrust class action alleging it conspired to inflate real estate commissions, despite its HomeServices of America brokerage having paid $250 million two years earlier to settle similar claims. A federal judge in Missouri rejected the company’s argument that the settlement shielded it, treating the two entities as a single enterprise for antitrust purposes. Meanwhile, the company’s 2026 annual shareholders’ meeting featured Warren Buffett on the cover of the “Shareholders Guide,” but the former CEO will stay offstage, allowing CEO Greg Abel to field questions. The meeting will also introduce subsidiary executives—including BNSF CEO Katie Farmer and NetJets chief Adam Johnson—into the Q&A sessions for the first time.

A new edition of “The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers” is slated for release on April 28, adding chapters that spotlight Berkshire’s insurance engine and profiling key figures such as Ajit Jain’s possible successor. The book, published by Wiley, reflects the company’s transition from Buffett to Abel. Recent data show Berkshire’s market cap at roughly $1.04 trillion, with cash reserves of $373 billion, and ongoing stock repurchases. Highlights from recent Buffett‑Munger remarks emphasize the simplicity of Berkshire’s economic model, the power of retained earnings, and the importance of avoiding “standard stupidities” in investing.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/11/berkshire-electric-utilitys-court-win-could-save-it-billions.html

#berkshirehathaway #pacificorp #warrenbuffett #gregabel #bnsf

Oregon appeals court hands big victory to PacifiCorp in wildfire class action suit

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://lincolnchronicle.org/oregon-appeals-court-hands-big-victory-to-pacificorp-in-wildfire-class-action-suit/

'Anything that can be built can be taken down': The largest dam removal in US history is complete – what happens next?

The #KlamathRiver is free of four huge dams for the first time in generations. But for the #Yurok tribe, the river's restoration is only just beginning – starting with 18 billion seeds.

by Lucy Sheriff, September 3, 2024

"This is decades and decades in the making," says Thompson. 'We were told it was never going to happen. That it was foolish to even ask for one removal. We were asking for four.'

"The #KlamathBasin covers more than 12,000 square miles (31,000 sq km) in southern Oregon and northern California, and was home to the JC Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2 and Iron Gate dams, all owned by #PacifiCorp, an electric utilities company. The Klamath was once the third-largest salmon producing river on the US's West Coast before the construction of the dams blocked fish from accessing almost 400 miles (640km) of critical river habitat for almost 100 years.

"Fall #ChinookSalmon numbers plummeted by more than 90% and spring chinook by 98%. #SteelheadTrout, #CohoSalmon and #PacificLamprey numbers also saw drastic declines, and the Klamath tribes in the upper basin have been without their salmon fishery for a century, since the completion of #Copco 1 in 1922. The situation became so bad that Yurok tribe – who are known as the salmon people – began importing Alaskan salmon for their annual salmon festival, traditionally held to celebrate the first return of fall chinook salmon to the Klamath River.

"The dams also had a severe impact on #WaterTemperature and quality – growth of #ToxicAlgae behind two of the dams resulted in health warnings against water contact.

"'It was painful,' says Willard Carlson, a Yurok elder who is known as a #RiverWarrior and was part of the inter-generational campaign. 'All those years seeing our river damaged like that. I remember as a kid we'd have other people from nearby tribes making fun of our river. 'Oh, you're Yurok, your river is dirty.' For us, the #dams were a monument to the [#coloniser] people who conquered us."

[...]

"Restoring the land

But something that does need "a helping hand is the restoration of 2,200 acres (890ha) of land that is above ground for the first time in a century following the emptying of four reservoirs.

"'Removing the dams is one thing, restoring the land is quite another,' says Thompson, a civil engineer and part of the crew working on the restoration project – which is being managed by Resource Environmental Solutions, an ecological restoration company."

Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240903-removing-the-klamath-river-dams-to-restore-the-river-what-happens-next

#KarukTribe #YurokTribe #KlamathRiverRenewal #RestoreNature #Decolonize #WaterIsLife #NativeAmericans