{news} Environmental Groups to Challenge GE's New Ad/Image Campaign

[Judith Herkimer]

Environmental Advocates of New York
Housatonic Environmental Action League
Housatonic River Initiative
Scenic Hudson
Sierra Club

M E D I A   A D V I S O R Y

May 9, 2005
Albany, New York

Contact:
Chris Ballantyne - Sierra Club: 518-253-0717
Rich Schiafo - Scenic Hudson: 845-473-4440 ext. 274
Jeff Jones - Environmental Advocates of NY: 518-462-5526 ext. 233
Tim Gray - Housatonic River Initiative: 413-446-2520
Audrey Cole - Housatonic Environmental Action League:  860-672-6867

Environmental Groups to Challenge GE's New Ad/Image Campaign

Details: In a noon speech in Washington, D.C. today, General Electric
Company CEO Jeffrey Immelt plans to announce a major new company initiative
known as "ecomagination." The idea is to promote the company's innovative
environmental technologies as a contribution to the fight against global
warming.

Meanwhile the Hudson and Housatonic Rivers remain plagued by GE PCBs. GE had
effectively delayed the efforts to clean up these rivers for many years. The
company has spent millions of dollars arguing against cleaning up and
millions more on public relations distorting the facts about PCBs, in an
effort to convince the public that no action is necessary.  GE also
continues its attempt to undermine the federal Superfund program by
challenging key provisions of the statute in federal court.

Representatives from leading environmental organizations in New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut, supporting the cleanup of GE PCB's, are
available to discuss the company's lack of ecomagination in removing toxic
poisons from their communities and rivers.

"GE's effort at an environmental makeover won't pass the laugh test unless
and until the company commits to cleaning up America's Hudson River," said
Chris Ballantyne of the Sierra Club. "They have done everything in their
power to minimize and delay the long overdue cleanup of the Hudson River."

"To be a true environmental innovator, GE must change its ways," said Rich
Schiafo of Scenic Hudson. "One need not look beyond the Hudson River to see
the other side of GE's environmental legacy. It is time for the company to
fully and finally commit to the cleanup and restoration of the upper Hudson
River."

"GE should be commended for a bold approach to climate issues," said Jeff
Jones of Environmental Advocate of New York. "However, the company has a
long way to go before it can legitimately claim to be an environmentally
progressive company. The GE environmental record on the Hudson is a sad
chapter in the annals of corporate responsibility."

"The Housatonic River has some of the highest levels of PCBs in the fish,
ducks, and sediments in the world," said Tim Gray of the Housatonic River
Initiative. "At the recent PCB risk assessment meetings GE's eco-imagination
team told residents that everything is fine, we have nothing to worry about.
We expect GE to challenge any further clean up orders."

"Ecomagination" is General Electric's new corporate marketing doublespeak
which is just another attempt to redirect the public's focus from years of
despicable PCB pollution that they have yet to adequately remediate," says
Audrey Cole of the Housatonic Environmental Action League.

The five groups from the tri-state area are calling upon GE to use its
ecomagination to clean up and restore the Hudson and Housatonic Rivers, drop
legal challenges to the federal Superfund program, and fully disclose the
costs of its long-standing effort to quash these cleanups. ####