The president of General Electric slams his previous company green policy as being “too elitist”, vows to get back to “working”. Maybe this will mean no more “green sin week” on GE owned TV networks.
His quote is similar to the headfirst smack into reality experienced this week by über greenist George Monbiot:
From Reuters: The head of the largest U.S. conglomerate, who in January was named a top adviser on job creation to U.S. President Barack Obama, said on Tuesday that GE’s focus on the environmentally friendly aspects of its wind turbines and high-efficiency appliances might have led his critics to believe he was more interested in saving the planet than growing the company.
“If I had one thing to do over again I would not have talked so much about green,” Immelt said at an event sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Even though I believe in global warming and I believe in the science … it just took on a connotation that was too elitist; it was too precious and it let opponents think that if you had a green initiative, you didn’t care about jobs. I’m a businessman. That’s all I care about, is jobs.”
…
“I’m kind of over the stage of arguing for a comprehensive energy policy. I’m back to keeping my head down and working,” Immelt said.
h/t to junkscience.com
We are surprised that they are jumping off a derailed bandwagon to jump on the next one in line?
Crass commercialism, at its finest.
“I believe in”……as opposed to “I understand….”
All-too-common expression of uncritical thought. It’s a wonder he reconnected with the bottom line.
Get back to being a company Jack Donaghy would run, not one Alec Baldiwn would run.
GE purchased the Enron wind division. They inherited Enron’s cap and tax agenda. SOX, COX, NOX and MH4.
Silly Putty theory:
It stretches to conform to the ever-changing data, and when you apply it to print, it gives the opposite image after soaking up the dried ink.
Global Warming causes Global Cooling means that AGW flopped, but we’d really like to continue our agenda with a paint job. This here Silly Putty impression proves it.
Whoops, gotta stretch that to Climate Catastrophe.
As some wag said, GE is a corporate welfare crack whore. I don’t buy any product made by it, and, being a foodie, I have noticed that whenever some chefs competing in a TV contest (e.g. Top chef, Chopped etc) run into trouble, it was usually because the GE appliances never got hot enough or were too slow.
Except GE’s television networks are now owned by Comcast, who have promised to continue the “Green Week” practice.
REPLY: Ah well must have missed that…but maybe Comcast will take a cue? – Anthony
Well, a baby step in the right direction. That is as far as one can go, at first. Eventually, he may find out he was 180 degrees wrong about the biological effects of both carbon dioxide and warming. Both are beneficial to almost all living things.
We do not know whether warming is still occurring. The earth entered the 20th century still warming from the Little Ice Age. The trends for the 21st century are uncertain, and data is contradictory.
She’s goin’ down. Abandon Ship!
>> Mike Bromley the Kurd says:
May 5, 2011 at 10:16 am
“I believe in”……as opposed to “I understand….”
All-too-common expression of uncritical thought. It’s a wonder he reconnected with the bottom line. <<
At least he's honest about it being a religion.
A lot of us (myself included,) think Global Warming is a bunch of nonsense, but are very amenable to “Renewable” energy Technologies. We believe that, maybe it’s okay to spend an extra two or three cents per kilowatt/hr, now, in order to prepare for the day when fossil fuels really do begin to “run low.”
I trust Immelt as far as I can throw Obama… and that isn’t far. Based on the latest filings, GE all but owns a majority of congresscritters. GE will only change its course depending on changes in the political wind. And now that the House has started taking down the EPA, Immelt has seen the writing on the wall. It seems to me that he may be afraid all his windmill and solar subsidies are on the line and he’s attempting to placate the ‘pubs. Furthermore, the public has been boycotting GE consumer products so much, they have not been able to dump that division as planned.
I take some stock holders weren’t too happy about his recent performance and the image he’s been giving the company.
“…I’m a businessman. That’s all I care about, is jobs.”
What a load! Don’t even get me started on this guy.
Well…
We were trying to keep our soldiers from being killed by IEDs and he’s doing business with Iran who are supplying parts for the construction of IEDs. He has no honor and the backbone of a slug. IMHO
GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt emits some fine sounding words. But the April 25, 2011 issue of Forbes puts Immelt in second place for “WORST CEOS FOR THE BUCK.” He gets a $12.2 million pay packet.
Instead of concentrating on its core businesses and quality, GE’s business plan seems to be to chase the latest fads, suck up to politicians, and finagle ways to completely avoid paying taxes.
I bought a GE refrigerator at Lowes less than 3 years ago. After five repairs, including replacing the compressor, two heat exchangers, the sensors and other parts, Lowes declared it “unrepairable,” and credited me with the full original cost. My GE dishwasher works, sort of, but one glass will come out clean, and another will still be dirty.
No more GE junk for me.
Slightly off topic but “Obama’s administration floats draft plan to tax cars by the mile” article attracts 2000 angry commenters in a few hours who think different to the green hippy President who wants to invade our privacy,our lives, by tracking where we go, when we go and what we should and shouldn’t be doing. How long before our cars are advising us that “the last trip you made was unnecessary, pay an extra co2 fee”. “that trip to McDonalds is melting icebergs” “going out on that last date was totally unnecessary as you do not need to get married and procreate anyway” . Why does Oblunder want to destroy the freedom that was/is America?
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/159397-obama-floats-plan-to-tax-cars-by-the-mile?page=1#comments
Crocodile tears.
Ah, the use of ‘precious’. It’s a delight.
I’ve used ‘The precious conceit of a Western elite’ to describe CAGW for years, but suffered for my art because both ‘precious’ and ‘conceit’ are used in a somewhat archaic manner. Now here’s ol’ Jeffy using ‘precious’ like I would.
The Chinese caught on to this well before Copenhagen, and their behaviour there could have been predicted. It was. By me.
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Mike Bromley the Kurd says:
May 5, 2011 at 10:16 am
“I believe in”……as opposed to “I understand….”
All-too-common expression of uncritical thought. It’s a wonder he reconnected with the bottom line.
You beat me to it, Mike. I suspect that the truth is that he doesn’t necessarily believe any of it, but as with most big business reps he feels pressure to pander to the alarmist bullies, rather than to stand up and be counted. And that is one of the biggest challenges for the sceptical community: convincing the cowards who pander, to… well, stop pandering and get some balls.
Very common for a CEO of such a behemoth to forget that he’s playing with someone else’s money and that his public statements need to represent the entire enterprise and its hundreds of thousands of stakeholders – not just his own personal beliefs and pet causes.
Sounds like certain significant shareholders may have reminded him……
It’s just a “trick to hide the decline”
(or maybe to reverse the decline in the confidence in him)
He believes in it but ………. I can’t for the life of me understand how any person with a reasonable level of smarts could trust the science after reading the emails and the harry read me file.
Until climategate is settled there is no “settled science”
> Mike Bromley the Kurd says: May 5, 2011 at 10:16 am
> “I believe in”……as opposed to “I understand….”
Nail meet hammer. Well said. The fact that he uses a sentence that partly reads “I believe in the science” is just too much of a George Carlin moment for me. Maybe he should look up oxymoron sometime and think about the words “belief” and “science”.
Both Warren Buffett, and Jeff Immelt are betting the same way – that fossil fuels will get a lot more expensive. “Morality, and Ethics,” aside, I would feel uneasy betting against them.
Since when do businesses care about jobs? Well, unless it is jobs done by the cheapest possible labor or robot. The fewer people they have, the better for them. I’m not being critical, that’s just the way it is.
Immelt and GE are rent-seeking bastards. Please boycott GE. The same for Siemens and the rest of their ilk.