Warren Buffett Regrets Owning Electric Utilities

Every year investors eagerly anticipate the arrival of Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. In this year’s letter, after discussing favorite companies like Coke, Apple, and Occidental Petroleum, Mr. Buffett turned to two areas of financial disappointment, railroads and utilities.

But there was one key difference. As a large investor, he was disappointed with the performance of BNSF rail lines but he acknowledged the considerable economic potential in the business, its centrality to the US economy, and reaffirmed…