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...most incendiary environmental issue, dredging the Hudson of PCBs, GE lobbyists have been unrelenting. One of them, Roger France, is the former chief of staff to Representative Charles Taylor, who received $8,250 from GE for his 2004 re-election. At the company's request, the North Carolina Republican inserted language in a spending bill calling for the National Academy of Sciences to study PCB-contaminated sites and produce a new cost-benefit analysis of dredging, which critics say GE could use to curtail the Hudson cleanup. GE has long insisted that the prudent course of action on the Hudson...
...Immelt and GE--whose size, stellar earnings record and legendary management practice make it one of the world's most influential companies--it's about cashing in on cleaning up the planet. Worldwide, the market for environmental goods and services hit $600 billion last year, according to Environmental Business News. Some segments, such as renewable-energy power systems, are expanding at double-digit rates in Europe and China. Immelt needs those high-growth businesses to offset mature sectors in GE's portfolio, which aren't growing much more than the economy. The potential for fuel-saving technologies and renewable energy...
...some ways, corporations such as GE are pulling U.S. policy into greener arenas despite the Federal Government's recalcitrance. For instance, Senate proposals to cap CO2 emissions--opposed by congressional Republicans and President Bush--failed to make it into the energy bill. The Senate bill does require utilities to generate 10% of electricity from renewable fuels like wind or solar by 2020, but Bush wants more emphasis on tax breaks for oil and gas production. Immelt is one of a growing number of chief executives, including the heads of major utilities, who think carbon caps are both inevitable...
Whatever Washington's agenda, GE sees eco-friendly products as a growth business, especially overseas. In the past three years, GE's wind business, snapped up from Enron for $358 million, has grown into a $2 billion enterprise, with sales up 300%. GE has been rolling out a new generation of supersized turbines for offshore wind farms, the latest one off the coast of Ireland, and announced its third contract to supply smaller windmills to mainland China--where energy demand is soaring and the government aims to spend $85 billion on pollution controls, especially in smog-choked cities like Beijing...
Despite Immelt's pledge that it's a new green day at GE, it would be a mistake to think the company has quit protecting its less eco-friendly interests. GE has a history of opposing environmental regulations that don't suit the firm. In 2000, superstar lawyer Laurence Tribe asked the U.S. Supreme Court, on GE's behalf, to throw out EPA standards for smog and soot (the court declined). In 2003, GE was part of an industry coalition that lobbied for revised EPA regulations allowing utilities and refineries to modernize their oldest and dirtiest facilities, in some cases...