NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK/A ),

the conglomerate led by Warren Buffett, will fight all lawsuits

brought against its utility business due to wildfires as the

cases are "unfounded," a top executive said on Saturday.

Greg Abel, who is widely recognised as Buffett's successor

and the future Berkshire chief executive, said at Berkshire's

annual shareholding meeting that "all the litigation will be

challenged" in relation to PacifiCorp ( PPWLM ).

One thousand victims filed $30 billion of new claims against

PacifiCorp ( PPWLM ) last month, blaming it for causing Oregon wildfires

in 2020. The lawsuit comes on top of $825 million that

PacifiCorp ( PPWLM ) has already paid or owes in claims due to other

wildfire related lawsuits.

Berkshire's utility business emerged as a potential drag on

the conglomerate's earnings in the past year. Buffett said

earlier this year that his failure to anticipate adverse

developments in the utility business was a "costly mistake."

"When we come to the wildfires, that's been a substantial

challenge because it's the first time there's been a lot of

discussion around one of our utilities" that is experiencing

"significant losses associated with wildfires," Abel said.

Utilities can reduce the risk of wildfires by insulating

wires to reduce the threat of sparks, trimming or cutting down

trees that could contact power equipment, burying transmission

lines underground, and temporarily shutting off power.

But Abel said temporarily shutting off power during storms

or wildfires was not on the minds of utility employees, and it

required Berkshire "to fundamentally change the culture."

"Our employees worked incredibly hard to keep the power on

day in day out through storms," Abel said. "Unfortunately,

through the 2020 fires, the instincts were not to turn off the

power. The instinct was to keep the power on to keep hospitals

fire stations responding."

Utah lawmakers in March allowed large utilities to collect

surcharges from customers to establish wildfire funds, and

capped liability on some claims, a move that Abel described as

the "gold standard."

Abel said Berkshire has started telling employees to shut

the power during wildfires, has updated its system so it can be

done quickly, and is also continuing to invest in the business

to reduce wildfire risks.

But Abel said Berkshire will be "very disciplined" about

making additional investments in utilities. "As Warren said, we

don't want to throw good capital after bad capital."