No. of Recommendations: 5
One way or another I hope that Berkshire gets out of the utility business in fire prone areas, soon. The risk is just too high. In August Berkshire reported that it faced $46 billion in claims for the 2020 wildfires, and although Berkshire does not expect to have to pay anywhere near that amount, judgements in trials are hugely uncertain, with doubling or trebling of awards more common than not. A lawyer once told me that his record in jury trials was about 50/50, with no correlation to the strength of the cases.
Beyond the 2020 fires, there will certainly be more fires. The Camp fire in 2018 that destroyed the town of Paradise, CA bankrupted PG&E.
Electricity transmission in fire prone areas is a bad business. I can't believe Berkshire bought PacifiCorp.
