Berkshire Unit Loses Bid to Dismiss Case Over Dams
Date: 23-Aug-07
Country: US
Author: Jonathan Stempel
US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco rejected an attempt by some Klamath River tribal members, salmon fishermen and environmentalists to force the PacifiCorp utility to change how it operates the dams while the case is pending.
Those claims were based on California law, and the judge said federal regulations take precedence in governing hydropower projects.
In his Aug. 16 ruling, however, Alsup allowed the plaintiffs to pursue a nuisance claim, and rejected PacifiCorp's attempt to put the lawsuit on hold during licensing proceeding before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Niall McCarthy, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy in Burlingame, California who represents the plaintiffs, called the ruling "a tremendous victory. We are going to have an ability to prove PacifiCorp is contaminating the water through the nuisance claim, and then to stop that contamination."
An outside lawyer for PacifiCorp referred a call to company spokeswoman Jan Mitchell, who did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
At Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska in May, Buffett said he would defer to regulators' assessment of the dams' operations. Buffett prefers not to have day-to-day oversight of Berkshire's 70-plus companies.
PacifiCorp is owned by Berkshire unit MidAmerican Energy.
