Economics

Buffett: Wind and Solar Power Competition Challenges Utilities

  • `Redecorating the boss's office,' no longer a profit center
  • Utility regulators have rewarded emphasis on efficiency

The Best Warren Buffett Quotes From Shareholder Letters

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Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said subsidized wind and solar power in the U.S. may erode the economics of electric utilities that care little for efficiency.

“The joke in the industry was that a utility was the only business that would automatically earn more money by redecorating the boss’s office,” Buffett wrote Saturday in his annual letter to shareholders. “Some utilities ran things accordingly. That’s all changing.”