Right Wing Ideologues Lecture GE CEO on Free Enterprise
David Roberts of Gristmill writes that GE CEO Jeff Immelt lost his patience with some right wing critics at a Wall Street Journal conference on economics and the environment:
"I don't need to be lectured by anybody in this room about how to compete!"
From another speaker it might sound defensive, but in this case it is the CEO of GE, the second largest company in the world. Jeff Immelt knows whereof he speaks.
Immelt's outburst came toward the end of a Q&A session that saw him repeatedly assailed by ideological conservatives angry over his involvement in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of large businesses lobbying for a carbon cap-and-trade system, and his leadership role in pushing the business world to embrace clean energy and sustainability.
One might think the a conference organized by the Wall Street Journal would be friendly territory for the CEO of GE. Think again:
What put him over the top was Terry Anderson of the Property and Environment Research Center, a right-wing think tank. Anderson asked what real entrepreneurs -- the ones who don't have the resources to lobby for favorable treatment from government -- are supposed to do when a carbon cap cripples the economy.
Real entrepreneurs. That set Immelt off. "We compete our asses off," he snapped. "We're No. 1 at what we do!"
Jeff Immelt told a gathering in Wilmington back in 2006 that changing views on energy and the environment make for "surprising bedfellows" among environmental and business leaders. While the ideologues are still fighting over the very idea of human caused climate change, GE is one of the world's leading manufacturers of wind turbines. He's got a business to run. What CEO would ignore the market for a billion dollar business line just to keep some think tank bozos happy?
posted by Tom Noyes at 7:12 AM
2 Comments:
It is the mythical small bussinessman and farmer that these right wing think tanks are out to protect with the huge grants that come in from Exxon.
it is really not difficult to understand. It is about oil.
The neo conservatives are only interested in oil..
Global warming is bad for oil. Therefore it must be a myth.
Oil is ready for the taking in South West Iraq. Therefore Saddam and Al Qaeda must be linked.
Helping citizens of New Orleans does nothing for oil...Let them suffer; we're busy elsewhere.
Windpower hurts natural gas. Therefore, Windpower is suspect.Despite all evidence to the contrary, there has to be something wrong with wind......
Perhaps your readers can think of more.....
Although I offer these tongue in cheek, I am beginning to wonder whether their is perhaps some grain of truth buried within those statements.......
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