Sierra Club Response to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting

OMAHA, Neb. - At Berkshire Hathaway's first annual shareholder meeting since Warren Buffett's retirement, CEO Greg Abel claimed 93% of MidAmerican Energy's electricity comes from renewable sources built in an affordable way. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, MidAmerican only produced about 65% of its power from renewable sources in 2024, while generating 26% from fossil fuels. During that time, MidAmerican's coal and gas-burning power plants emitted over 14 million tons of carbon dioxide.

After overestimating MidAmerican's renewable energy generation, Abel also went on to say the Berkshire-owned utility plans to meet data center-driven energy demand by building new gas units.

In response, Emma Colman, Beyond Coal Senior Campaign Organizer at Sierra Club, released the following statement:

"This weekend, we went to Omaha to ask Greg Abel how long he plans to keep operating expensive coal and gas-burning power plants that are not only bad for customers, they're bad for business, and they're bad for shareholders.

Climate change isn't just an environmental threat; the increasing frequency and intensity of fires, floods, and other extreme weather events will take a tremendous toll on Berkshire businesses, millions of people's retirement savings, and our entire economy. Climate risk is financial risk, and Berkshire Hathaway has been dangerously fanning the flames of climate change by burning fossil fuels for too long."