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
CEO’s are glorified managers beholden to and concerned about stock holders. The stock holders are concerned about their dividend check. Everything else can barely be detected far to the rear.
Workers seek to rise up from where they come from and will work tirelessly to do so, if that goal is attainable. Unfortunately, large and small businesses sometimes put up roadblocks to that goal, getting richer themselves while leaving the workers languishing in the same place they started from. Unions came to the forefront of that endeavor because disorganized workers could not speak with any kind of power.
My point is this: when the focus becomes blurred looking towards and into the business, and starts looking away and outside itself (IE to stock holders), workers, jobs, and products deteriorate.
Everyone, Reuters, Milloy, this Post, the commenters seem to have missed the non-issue here.
Immelt is responding to critics of his appointment by The President and saying he cares about jobs and running a business to appease them. Nothing substantial or real has changed. There will be no policy changes. GE will continue to game the system wherever they can (rent seeking). They will continue to be a drain on the US economy. There is no great change in direction either contemplated or being implemented.
To all of those stating or thinking “It’s Over!”, your verbal ejaculations of success are premature! This is only the beginning of the end… and only if we keep the honest science pressure hard on our politicians, religious leaders, product and service providers, and (most importantly) our children.
We are engaged in a protracted battle with the AGW Armada. Many fussilades have been exchanged and the AGW Armada is the worse for the it. They are taking on water… but they are not sunk. They are well funded, well equipped, can still maneuver, and their cannons have not been silenced. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and repeatedly shell them at every jibe and turn of their deceits , with reason, data, and good cheer! Give them no quarter! If we do that well, the day may come when we can sound the ‘cease fire’ and watch their tattered ships slip beneath the waves. But that day is not today. We have much hard work to do before that day arrives.
Soooo….. Take heart, WUWT freebooters! Then pour it to every dreadnought and dinghy of AGW, me Lads and Lassies! Blast their masts and rip their rigging! Rend their sails and shot rake their decks! Warm their globes in ways they never wished for! Then, when their ships are heeling and reeling, bring all guns to bear at their exposed waterline and send them to the depths that await all such failed philosophies. Take no prisoners….. AAHHRRRR!
(I love a good ‘swash buckler’, don’t you? };>)
“That’s all I care about, is jobs.”
His too maybe…
Immelt took GE’s stock from over $70 a share to where it has been for around a decade at around $10. He has sold to Iran and other shady countries, and moved profits off shore to avoid taxes. The guy’s a piece of work and obviously only does what he has to do to keep his job. Last time I knowingly bought anything made by GE was 2 decades ago. I’ll live in the dark before I’ll buy a GE light bulb.
I smell orchestration amongst our elitist castrati.
he believes in global warming….
You only believe in things you can’t prove to be fact
“….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.”
Flag down on this play! Is Immelt running for office or somehow occupying a political position? He’s the CEO of a conglomerate. The stockholders and Board of Directors care about one thing – creating value which translates into greater income.
There is some weird synergy going within the “upper crust” so-called of our industry. I know subsidies (aka corporate welfare) and other creative financing by government social engineers are a powerful draw, but they have a shelf life.
Immelts shelf life is probably close to expiration too – he has not been good for GE.
As “Andrew30 ” points out something similar happened at Walmart but they dropped the greenie strategy much quicker than GE because thanks to better management.
Immelt is also on the Board of the New York Federal Reserve. A three year term that is up in 2011. Obama Jobs Council. Member of the Business Council. And is CEO of GE in his spare time.
http://topics.wsj.com/person/I/jeffrey-r-immelt/282
There are options. I recommend Vestfrost for refrigerators. We’ve been using one for 14 years with no trouble. And it is well enough insulated so everything doesn’t melt when the power goes down.
Crooked Crony Capitalism…
Smokey said: “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.”
I second the notion that GE makes junk; I have not consciously bought a GE product in more than thirty years. Unfortunately, they are such cheap junk that it’s hard to find a house, new or used, that doesn’t have that flaw.
As for dirty dishes, state and federal lawmakers are also to blame. There are no phosphates in dishwasher detergent any more. But you can still buy TSP. Add a very small amount of TSP (plus a small amount of Lemi-Shine if you have hard water) and even a lousy GE dishwasher will do a better job – until it breaks down again.
As I understand it, GE used to do engineering and manufacturing, but now days they just do advertising and distribution. A “Brand” with no responsibility for manufacturing or design. And, consequently, not that much control over quality.
Yeah, I prefer to buy products with more connection between manufacturer and brand.
DirkH says: May 5, 2011 at 11:53 am “That leaves you with no applicances. Well, you could buy Bosch, but Bosch bought Ersol, a solar company so they’re probably out as well… Have fun washing your cloths by hand.”
My washer and dryer are Samsung. I don’t have a single GE appliance in my kitchen. The $150 I just spent stocking up on incandescent bulbs did not include a single GE product.
I also don’t believe anything the scumbag Immelt says. He has been busy destroying industry and working to raise our costs to live in this country for years. He’s no better than a traitor, and I think traitors should be shot.
I commented on Reuters the moment Steve Milloy first posted about this. That perhaps I would need to reconsider my self-imposed boycott of any and all truly evil “Big Green” rent seekers. That perhaps Immelt would consider competing on a level playing field without taxpayer assistance, or that I might even consider buying stock in GE one day. My comment wasn’t posted, of course.
While Jeff’s comments are a welcome revelation, I see no indication he can meet his lofty (presumably evil capitalist) goals without rent-seeking. Until this cycle is broken and smashed on the ground for all to see, until pure unrestrained capitalism is restored, there is really no hope of an American recovery.