Warren Buffet: Steath Profits First. Environment Second

Unfortunately, this story is apparently correct.

Here is the story. I dislike the headline because I don't care who makes whom richer as long as they are honest about it. That stipulated, I believe the story is essentially correct because it tracks with my experience pertaining to 350.org . 

The Dakota Access Pipeline, which recently began carrying oil from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to a refinery in Illinois, was threatened and delayed by a series of professional and well-funded protests. Much of the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline activities were part of a campaign orchestrated by 350.org, an extremist organization that receives major funding from the Tides Foundation – which gets a large portion of its financial support from Buffett’s NoVo Foundation.

It appears NoVo’s interest in blocking the construction of the pipeline had more to do with protecting Berkshire Hathaway’s railroad interests than protecting the environment. Berkshire Hathaway owns Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, a railroad with existing infrastructure capable of delivering oil and natural gas from North Dakota to oil terminals in the Midwest.

If 350.org and the other well-funded anti-pipeline protesters supported by the NoVo Foundation had succeeded in killing the Dakota Access Pipeline, Berkshire Hathaway would have been positioned to make hundreds of millions of dollars transporting the oil – even though shipping oil by rail is much more dangerous for the environment than moving it via pipeline.

When I had my conversations with 350.org, I found them not to be respectful of science and I found them to be extremists. I would never give them money. It is indicative of Buffet's character that he does and does so without up-front disclosure. 

While I am a huge fan of railroads and, especially, BNSF, it is also a fact that pipelines can be a better alternative for moving fossil fuels. So, Warren Buffet -- a 'good' progressive was willing to sacrifice the environment in order to make more money. And, yes, he takes private jets. 

I'd call him a hypocrite but that seems par for the course for the global warming movement.