Midamerican Energy Holdings, Berkshire Hathaway, and Salmon

Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified insurance company. It owns Geico, an auto insurer, General Re, a reinsurer that insures insurance companies, and a few others. It takes the money that people or companies pay in premiums, and invests that. This is how they make money. Berkshire has about 41 publicly traded stocks, and Warren Buffett's investments are scrutinized by rabidly curious investors eager to ape him. Berkshire also will buy over private companies.

Midamerican Energy Holdings is one of those. They seem to be serious about environmental responsibility, judging from the RESPECT statement on their website. They generate 15% of their electricity using "green" sources, such as wind geothermal, biofuel, solar, and hydroelectric power. They generate 1,167MW using hydropower, the largest proportion of their "green" energy.

And there is a problem with that. PacificCorp, which is a subsidiary of Midamerican, is being sued over its dams on the Klamath River by environmentalists, Native tribes, and fishers. Allegedly, toxic algae blooms in the reservoirs behind the Iron Gate and Copco dams in Northern California generate liver toxins that endanger the salmon, as well as the tribal medicine men who bathe in the water. Allegedly, PacificCorp "improperly controls the intake and release of water, allowing it to stagnate as temperatures in the reservoirs rise well above natural levels."

PacifiCorp, owned by a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway (Charts, Fortune 500), is pursuing renewals of its licenses to operate the dams with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

PacifiCorp has been working with 26 interested parties to find a solution to issues related to the relicensing for at least a couple of years, a company spokeswoman said, but added that the company had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of the Interior last year recommended removing the dams or building "ladders" for the spawning fish if PacifiCorp wants to keep them.

The Klamath River salmon population, once one of the West Coast's most robust, has declined during the past two decades as the dams and declining water levels from farm irrigation blocked their spawning routes. Growers have objected to attempts by environmentalists to limit the amount of water they can divert from the river for their crops during dry years.

Berkshire Hathaway is one of more ethical companies out there. Perhaps it is not the greenest company around. However, its boss is concerned with ethics and is one of the more broad-minded capitalists around. This incident concerns Christians because of effects on the environment, and on an indigenous group. Let us pray for a just solution.