Dear Commons Community,

As General Electric’s  CEO Jeffrey Immelt prepares to leave, the New York Times has a featured article today on G.E.’s History of Innovation, lauding the company’s contribution’s to electronics, home appliances, medicine, etc. For example:

“In 1889, the company that Thomas A. Edison founded joined with two others to form what would become one of the most storied conglomerates in the United States. Called Edison General Electric, the company mirrored the growth of industrial America from the steam age to the age of electricity and beyond.

During World War II, General Electric supplied the United States military with executives and equipment manufacturing. In the postwar boom, G.E. sold appliances that helped free America’s housewives from the kitchen. And in the 1980s, Jack Welch, then the chief executive, expanded the company into media and Wall Street. Throughout, G.E. amassed a library of patents. Below are a few of the company’s notable products and periods.”

The article goes on to praise the company and its leaders, however, there is not one mention of the fact that G.E. has been one of the major environmental polluters especially of the Hudson River.

G.E. may be admired in corporate circles as one of America’s most profitable companies but along the Hudson it is despised by many for what it did to our waterways.

Tony