Klamath River Advocates Ask Warren Buffett to Close the Deal

by Dan Bacher, editor of the Fish Sniffer

Klamath Basin tribal members, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and river advocates have traveled to Omaha, Nebraska for the past two years to educate shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation about the urgent need to remove the Klamath River dams owned by its subsidiary, PacifiCorp, during the company's annual shareholders meeting. This weekend they will ask Warren Buffett, the owner of Berkshire Hathaway and the richest man in the world, to "open the river" and "close the deal" in order to restore salmon and steelhead to the river above the dams.
 
Last year over 30 Klamath Basin activists attended the shareholders meeting. Several members of the group spoke before the crowd of over 35,000 shareholders urging Warren Buffett to remove his dams on the Klamath River, while others unfurled banners during the meeting.
 
"This year, we're as organized and determined as ever to get Klamath River people back to Omaha to call on PacifiCorp to close the dam removal deal and open our river," according to a statement from the Klamath Riverkeeper. "While we are cautiously optimistic regarding PacifiCorps ongoing negotiations with local communities on a dam removal plan, we want the corporation to know we are anxious to see a final binding agreement that removes dams and protects our water quality."
 
The group will be holding a film night in collaboration with Progressive Omaha to help inform members of the public on Klamath River issues, willl hold a press conference for national and international media, and will educate shareholders on the progress to date to remove PacifiCorps Klamath River dams. For more information, go to http://www.klamathriver.org/Omaha.html.
 
"This weekend we want to give the company some praise for coming to the table and doing the right thing," said Craig Tucker, spokesman for the Karuk Tribe. "PacifiCorp has committed to negotiating the dam removal agreement. At the same time, the deal isn't there yet. They're still negotiating the deal and the final agreement hasn't been forged."
 
"Right now the biggest obstacle to dam removal is the State of California," emphasized Tucker. "The Schwarzenegger administration seeks to link dam removal on the Klamath to a disastrous water bond that includes a peripheral canal and more dams. We think Klamath Dam removal should stand on its own merits and not be linked to destroying somebody else's river."
 
The annual shareholder meeting, presided over by Warren Buffett and Charles Munger, is set for Saturday, May 2 at the Qwest Center in Omaha. Over 35,000 people are expected to attend the "Woodstock of Capitalism."
 
On the same day that Klamath River advocates will be urging Buffett to "open the river" and "close the deal," the socially responsible investment firm Trillium Asset Management Corporation (Trillium), a shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, is joining two nonprofit advocacy organizations, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) and International Rivers, in calling on fellow Berkshire Hathaway investors to back a proposal on the agenda for the company's upcoming May 2, 2009 annual meeting that requests that Berkshire prepare a Sustainability Report on its performance on environmental and social issues.
 
Klamath River dams now operated by Berkshire Hathaways PacifiCorp subsidiary have been linked to toxic water conditions that produced the largest single salmon die-off in U.S. history," International Rivers Executive Director Patrick McCully stated. "Now PacifiCorp has promised to pay up to $200 million for the dams removal, because government studies show this would be cheaper than making the dams compliant with environmental laws. When your company has dams that are so harmful that it's cheaper to dismantle them than get them re-licensed, shouldnt shareholders know that? For more information, go to: http://internationalrivers.org/en/node/4261.
 
In other Klamath River news, the Northcoast Environmental Center in Arcata recently announced that it has withdrawn from the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) because it believes the agreement "threatens the rivers fishery and could actually impede dam removal." The Hoopa Valley Tribe, Oregon Wild, WaterWatch and some Upper Klamath Basin irrigators have already come out against the pact. The Yurok, Karuk and Klamath Tribes, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), American Rivers, Trout Unlimited and other organizations remain parties to the agreement.
 
"The NEC remains committed to separate negotiations with the energy company PacifiCorp to remove four dams on the Klamath River, and will move forward with initiatives to protect and restore the Klamath River, its vital salmon runs, and the Klamath basin's critically important wildlife refuges," according to a statement from the Center. "The NEC has long held deep reservations about several provisions of the KBRA, including an unprecedented guarantee of water delivery to upriver farmers. In dry years, such a water diversion would likely violate minimum river flows established in 2006 by a federal judge under the U.S. Endangered Species Act." For more information, go to: http://yournec.org/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=1&pid=3