Dave Lindorff:
.....
This may explain why people in India are reportedly rethinking GE’s bid for a big piece of the country’s proposed market for $150 billion in new nuclear power plants in that country, and why it may not be so easy for GE and other nuclear plant builders to escape liability for their products in the future.
Back in November, President Obama was in India pushing that country’s government to pass legislation exempting GE from liability for nuclear “accidents.” That idea is probably not going to go very far now.
Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and CEO of GE and a big friend of Obama’s (he was named to an unpaid post as “jobs czar” by the president earlier this year, despite the company’s long record of exporting US jobs to places like China and India), says it’s “too soon” to assess the impact on the company’s nuclear business prospects of the nuclear “accidents” in northern Japan.
He’s certainly right about that (though investors aren’t waiting: the stock was down 3.5% today alone by noon, following the second hydrogen gas explosion). At this point only two of the buildings housing the six troubled reactors has blown up, and TEPCO has only lost control of the cooling systems in three of the six, and also, so far, only three have suffered partial meltdowns. Things could get a lot worse if one or more goes into full meltdown, or if one or more of those waste “ponds” blows up.
Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE
And Obama's "job czar".
He is
currently on a planned business trip to India. Sticky timing, huh, Mr. Immelt?
From the
WSJ:
.....
Immelt, who is on a planned business trip to India, said that almost 60% of group revenue would come from overseas sales this year, a ratio that is set to increase. He has said that GE's business portfolio is the best since taking charge of the company 10 years ago, with its focus on infrastructure and a more targeted financial services business after shrinking the GE Capital unit and trimming media and security holdings.
The planned India visit comes at a delicate time for GE's nuclear power generation joint venture with Hitachi Ltd. (HIT, 6501.TO) in the wake of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Older-technology reactors built by GE are involved in the accident at a Japanese nuclear plant after cooling systems failed, and the unfolding drama has rekindled debates over the safety and design of modern reactors.
India has identified two sites for plants using U.S. nuclear technology, but is coincidentally finalizing a framework for handling liabilities in the event of an accident, a process likely to be influenced by the fallout from the Japanese accident.
.....
That, last November, our president pushed India to pass blanket legislation that would shield GE from liability from nuclear accidents is appalling, in view of what we know today about the unsafe design of these GE nuclear plants, both in Japan and the United States.
Who
is this man?