Hey all, hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column and let me know what you think! Here’s how it starts:
>*“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”*
>
>*So says Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent in the epic 2008 film “The Dark Knight.” It’s an apt analysis of Batman, the film’s beleaguered superhero — and, in a strange way, of the electric utility monopolies that for decades fueled the climate crisis by burning coal and oil and gas, then began investing heavily in renewable energy, then in many cases decided they wanted to do both.*
>
>*There may be no better examples of this phenomenon than the utilities led by Warren Buffett.*
>
>*The so-called Oracle of Omaha — so-called because journalists like me keep calling him that — is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, with an estimated net worth of $136 billion. Berkshire Hathaway owns several electric utilities, including MidAmerican in the Midwest, NV Energy in Nevada, Pacific Power in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Power in the Intermountain West.*
>
>*Those utilities have built lots of solar and wind farms. They also continue to burn lots of coal.*
>
>*The same goes for many publicly owned electricity agencies, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But I’m raising the climate hero/villain question for investor-owned utilities specifically because of a surprising commentary that Buffett offered last month in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.*
>
>*Maybe, Buffett suggested, owning utilities is no longer such a reliable way to make money.*
Again, hope you’ll read the whole thing and let me know what you think. If you’re interested, you can sign up to get my Boiling Point columns in your inbox twice a week at [latimes.com/boilingpoint](https://latimes.com/boilingpoint).
1 Comment
Hey all, hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column and let me know what you think! Here’s how it starts:
>*“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”*
>
>*So says Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent in the epic 2008 film “The Dark Knight.” It’s an apt analysis of Batman, the film’s beleaguered superhero — and, in a strange way, of the electric utility monopolies that for decades fueled the climate crisis by burning coal and oil and gas, then began investing heavily in renewable energy, then in many cases decided they wanted to do both.*
>
>*There may be no better examples of this phenomenon than the utilities led by Warren Buffett.*
>
>*The so-called Oracle of Omaha — so-called because journalists like me keep calling him that — is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, with an estimated net worth of $136 billion. Berkshire Hathaway owns several electric utilities, including MidAmerican in the Midwest, NV Energy in Nevada, Pacific Power in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Power in the Intermountain West.*
>
>*Those utilities have built lots of solar and wind farms. They also continue to burn lots of coal.*
>
>*The same goes for many publicly owned electricity agencies, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But I’m raising the climate hero/villain question for investor-owned utilities specifically because of a surprising commentary that Buffett offered last month in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.*
>
>*Maybe, Buffett suggested, owning utilities is no longer such a reliable way to make money.*
Again, hope you’ll read the whole thing and let me know what you think. If you’re interested, you can sign up to get my Boiling Point columns in your inbox twice a week at [latimes.com/boilingpoint](https://latimes.com/boilingpoint).