GE's Immelt Advocates Government Subsidies for Renewable Energy

The chief executive of General Electric has emerged as one of the most outspoken advocates of government caps on carbon emissions. But it’s not that visions of saving the planet are filling his “Ecomagination,” nor has he given up on Hayek. In transforming one of the world’s biggest companies into a clean-tech juggernaut, he just smells the chance to make a lot of money—if the U.S. doesn’t miss the train altogether.

“It’s no great thrill for me to do this stuff. I’m not an environmentalist. But if business has no voice, that’s the worst of all worlds,” Jeff Immelt said tonight keynoting The Wall Street Journal’s “ECO:nomics” conference in California.

“We live today in a certain kind of hell, where nothing happens,” he said. Lack of planning for new nuclear plants has paralyzed the industry; lack of progress on renewable-energy tax credits has clean-energy developers treading water. Worries over how carbon will be priced has the traditional coal-powered utility industry trembling. All are GE strongholds.

Clean technology is a huge business for GE already, and only stands to grow, if not in the U.S. then overseas. Renewable energy isn’t just a subsidy baby, subject to the whims of Congress. It’s a multi-billion dollar business for GE around the world. “If the U.S. doesn’t buy my wind turbines, I’ll go to Turkey,” he said.

SOURCE:  WSJ.COM