Can Warren Buffett's Energy Company Save Texas and the Rest of Us?

Can Warren Buffett's Energy Company Save Texas and the Rest of Us?
On 4/21/21 at 6:00 AM EDT
As Democrats and Republicans and other interested parties debate how to tackle climate change, big business seems to be moving forward without them. Recently, some 300 companies and investors, according to the Associated Press, called on President Biden to cut U.S. greenhouse emissions 50 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. In the most recent Berkshire Hathaway annual letter, Warren Buffett put the spotlight on Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) following the February mess in Texas when a stretch of snow, ice and bitter cold burst water pipes and threw millions into darkness and despair. BHE has sunk $18 billion in new transmission lines that will eventually bring solar and wind energy from the hinterlands to city dwellers out west. Wrote Buffett: "The advent of renewable energy made our project a societal necessity...The best sites for the new world of wind and solar generation...are often in remote areas." (BHE also has offered to build, for Texans, an $8 billion-plus backup system for future storms. No takers yet.) Newsweek Senior-Editor-at-Large Hank Gilman asked, via email, BHE Chief Executive Officer William Fehrman to tell us more about BHE's green energy evolution. Just in time for President Biden's climate summit this Thursday on Earth Day: Edited excerpts:

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