|
Become a friend of the Klamath Bucket Brigade All donations are tax deductible |
|
This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
GovTrack.us is an independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology.
by Dan Bacher
Klamath Basin tribal members,
fishermen, and river advocates will
ask Warren Buffett, the owner of
Berkshire Hathaway and the richest
man in the world, to "open the
river" and "close the deal" at the
annual shareholders meeting in Omaha
this Saturday.
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
PacifiCorp’s 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 PacifiCorp’s 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 2nd at the Qwest Center in Omaha.
Over 35,000 people are expected to attend this
weekend.
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 which requests that
Berkshire prepare a “Sustainability Report” on
its performance on environmental and social
issues.
“Klamath River dams now operated by Berkshire
Hathaway’s 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, shouldn’t shareholders know that?”
For more information, go to:
http://internationalrivers.org/en/node/4261
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section
107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit
or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this
information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For
more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml