Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting

TLDR: Our Sierra Club Iowa Beyond Coal Campaign staff, united forces with other SC Chapters, volunteer leaders, partners and local community leaders, attended the 2026 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting to call on new CEO Greg Abel to retire the company’s utilities’ coal plants and fully transition to clean energy for the sake of energy affordability for utility customers, good returns for individual investors and mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. Statement here.   Photo bank here. 

🏭 Why Berkshire Hathaway 🤑

Berkshire Hathaway is a trillion-dollar multinational conglomerate that was led by Warren Buffett for 60 years. Buffett stepped down as CEO at the end of last year, and Greg Abel (Des Moines resident) became CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1st, 2026. Prior to becoming CEO, Abel led Berkshire Hathaway Energy (which oversees all its utilities AND is based in Des Moines), and before that, he led MidAmerican Energy (its Iowa-based utility). Berkshire Hathaway’s three major electric utilities — MidAmerican Energy, PacifiCorp, and NV Energy — collectively provide electricity to over 4 million customers and operate “the dirtiest set of coal-fired power plants in the US” in Iowa, Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. 

Our coalition shows up to the annual shareholders meeting each year to directly and publicly call into question Berkshire Hathaway’s continued investments in dirty, aging coal plants, asking how long the company plans to keep burning polluting fossil fuels at the expense of all of us. This was our 5th year attending.

What We Did 

🫂 Welcome dinner 🍲

As folks arrived from various states and cities, we gathered to build relationships and ground ourselves in our weekend-of-action’s purpose and goals. We got the chance to get to know one another and learn about the different challenges we face with each respective Berkshire Hathaway Energy utility before going over our action agenda and plans for media engagement! 

⁉️ Q&A session 🗣️

The big draw of the event is an audience Q&A session with the CEO. Names that are drawn get a spot in line to ask a question directly to Greg Abel, in front of tens of thousands of shareholders and business executives and on live television. 

Kansas, a local Nebraska high school senior, was the only person in our group to have a chance to ask a question. Kansas was also the star last year! So, she made sure to remind Greg that we came back to press him on Berkshire Hathaway’s utilities’ impacts from coal pollution and contributions to climate change, at his direction. 

Here is a video of Kansas asking the question and Abel's response. 

“My name is Kansas and I attend Elkhorn South High School in West Omaha. Mr Able, you may remember me from last year and I’m here to question your company’s business model that is compromising my future and the planet's future. In your first letter to shareholders, you wrote Berkshire Hathaway “avoids businesses that undermine the fabric of society”. But, Berkshire’s electric utilities continue to invest in fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis. Can you tell me and my graduating class, when will Berkshire Hathaway’s utilities retire their fossil fuels, fully transition to clean energy and stop causing irreparable damage to the environment and my generation’s future?” 

Kansas was met with applause! In Abel’s response to the question, he claimed 93% of MidAmerican Energy’s electricity comes from renewable sources built in an affordable way. We called BS. MidAmerican actually only produced 65% of its power from renewable sources in 2024, while generating 26% from fossil fuels. 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. Booooo! 

🌊 Water Ceremony 🌊

Following the shareholder meeting and a debrief lunch nearby, we made our way down to the Missouri River for a Water Ceremony. Our partners at Great Plains Action Society, an indigenous-led climate justice organization, invited Keely Purcell, from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, to lead us. We passed around tobacco and offered it to the water spirits in prayer. This was a moving experience for all of us as we reckoned with the realities of coal pollution to that very river. 

🏃🏽‍♂️ 5k action 🏃🏼‍♀️

To really land our message – calling into question Berkshire Hathaway’s continued investments in fossil fuels – and to promote an invitation for action, we participated in the Berkshire Hathaway “Invest in Yourself 5k.” We had a group of runners walk/run the full 3.1 miles while connecting with other race participants and a cheer section of folks holding signs and a banner with a mean-looking Louie the Lightningbug stating “Obsessively, relentlessly burning coal,” a play on MidAmerican Energy’s slogan. Runners stopped to take pictures with Sooty, our tired, aging coal plant mascot that really wants to retire. At the finish line, we handed out info cards and energy bars as an invitation to our June 3rd webinar “Risky Business: Berkshire Hathaway's Fossil Fuels are Bad for Investors, Bad for Our Future” with Sierra Club’s Sustainable Finance Campaign Team.

👀 Our Reach and Impact 👀 

📢 Our direct and public question to Greg Abel, company leadership and individual shareholders was heard by the approximately 12,000 shareholders in attendance and seen by over 300,000 people who watched the CNBC coverage. 

🗞️ We’ve seen this national and local media coverage promoting our actions, messaging and demands: 

Barron’s: over 1.5 million readers 

Clean Technica: over 200k readers 

KMTV Omaha: over 20k viewers 

This local television coverage elevated a story about the coal plant pollution’s impact on the Winnebago reservation with Sunshine Bear’s interview. And MidAmerican Energy’s PR staff had to write a statement in response to our work setting the record straight… on a Sunday!

🍫We reached hundreds of shareholder 5k participants with handouts of lit and energy bars after the race! 

What’s Next?   

📨 We’ve been working with volunteer leaders to submit local opinion pieces in choice Nebraska, Iowa, Utah and Wyoming publications. Here’s an opinion piece in Nonpareil by Dr. Glenn Hurst, a Council Bluffs, Iowa resident and physician. Are you a Sierra Club member and Berkshire Hathaway shareholder? Reach out to partner on a letter to the editor.

🤳🏼We’re sharing stories on social media. Here’s our recap video on Instagram. Please like and share! 

💻 Our Beyond Coal Campaign is teaming up with Sierra Club’s Sustainable Finance staff to release an investor brief about Berkshire Hathaway. Join us for a virtual conversation that will provide insights into Berkshire Hathaway's fossil fuel assets, analysis on climate change as a systemic financial threat to the global economy and your long-term investment portfolios, and recommendations on how to drive change that will benefit your future. RSVP for Risky Business: Berkshire Hathaway's Fossil Fuels are Bad for Investors, Bad for Our Future on Wednesday, June 3rd at 7PM ET / 6PM CT.