GE a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions.
In the fourth quarter of 2008 as the companys stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying thats $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying.
Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gores agenda. GEs specific lobbying issues included the Climate Stewardship Act, Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act, Global Warming Reduction Act, Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act, Low Carbon Economy Act, and Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.
This isnt altruism or public relations. GE has started a joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in and hopes to manage the trade in greenhouse gas credits. But these investments and this trading floor are of basically no use and nearly no value without government restrictions on greenhouse gases.
Hence the lobbying, buttressed by generous campaign contributions: Employees and executives gave $1.35 million to politicians in the past election while GEs political action committee shelled out $1.55 million. About 64 percent of this $2.9 million went to Democrats, with Obama easily the top recipient of GE money.
Obamas budget includes the payoff, promising to start a multibillion-dollar greenhouse gas industry by 2012. In a letter this week, GES Immelt told shareholders that current events present an opportunity of a lifetime, because capitalism will be reset.
