Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders sign petition supporting rooftop solar

NV Energy Building Exterior

Steve Marcus

Exterior view of the NV Energy building Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, in Las Vegas.

More than 18,000 people have signed a petition asking Warren Buffett and NV Energy to ease what it calls their opposition to rooftop solar. The petition, released by ClimateTruth.org, includes more than 400 signatories who are investors in Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, which includes NV Energy.

Lobbyists for Berkshire Hathaway have pushed to eliminate a credit or add new costs for rooftop solar customers in Nevada, Utah, Washington and other states, arguing that the policy is a burden on nonsolar customers.

In the past decade, Berkshire Hathaway has invested $15 billion in utility-scale solar projects around the country. The company recently signed onto the the White House’s American Businesses Act on Climate Pledge, promising an additional $15 billion investment in renewables.

For the petition signers, what Berkshire is doing isn't enough. “They’ve made a great commitment, but what’s happening in Nevada and Utah runs contrary to it,” Brant Olson, campaign director for ClimateTruth.org, said.

Roger Levine, 77, is a Berkshire shareholder who has solar panels on his home in Las Vegas. He signed the petition despite his financial interest in Buffett’s company. “I want him to leave net metering alone,” he said. “There are people ignoring climate change and we are seeing the results of it.”

Faith Frank, a Las Vegas solar customer and Berkshire shareholder, also signed the pledge. “I am sure Warren Buffett is a perfectly nice man, but I am so tired of American corporations trying to squeeze out the last penny of profit at the cost of the environment,” she said. “It’s driving me crazy.”

Berkshire has a diverse set of interests aside from the billions it has invested in renewables — it also has a large stake in the fossil fuel industry. This week, Berkshire paid $4.5 billion to become the largest shareholder in the United States' largest oil refiner Phillips 66.

Buffett's role in Nevada's rooftop solar debate has been making headlines this year, but that should be over by 2016.

After the state’s cap on new net metering customers was reached months prior than expectations, the state Public Utilities Commission issued rules in August that keep in place the rate structure for the net metering program until a more permanent solution can be reached before 2016.

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