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[Welcome to GE on Demand: Your behind the scenes look at GE's technology and ideas,]

[and the people who make it happen. We hope you like what you find.]

[If this is your first time listening to GE podcasts,]

[and you would like to find out more, you can do so]

[by going to www.GE.com/on demand.]

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[My name is Amanda Griscom-Little, and I'm a syndicated columnist.]

[I do a weekly column on energy and the environment]

[for grist.org that's syndicated on salon.com]

[and occasionally on msnbc.com, and I write for magazines]

[ranging from Rolling Stone and Wired to]

[Vanity Fair, New York Times Magazine and Outside,]

[but all gerneally on the same topic which is energy and the environment, ]

[and I touch on a kind of broad range of issues]

[whether it's the technology angle ]

[ or the policy angle or the cultural implications.]

[So, I have a kind of--I have one beat ]

[which is energy and the environment, ]

[but I take a lot of different approaches to the same beat.]

[I started out as a technology writer out of college,]

[and I graduated in '96, so it was just at]

[the brink of the dot boom, and I started writing for Wired magazine. ]

[I did a column in the Village Voice,]

[the alternative paper in New York City, ]

[on urban technology upgrades. ]

[So, I specialized as a clean tech writer]

[around that time, and so my entrée into the world ]

[of environment energy policy was really through the technology angle]

[which is why this story was so exciting for me. ]

[It was sort of a return to my roots--my techy roots--]

[where I could kind of geek out with engineers]

[and talk about really abstruse technology issues.]

[Well, it's interesting. The hardest thing for magazine writers,]

[and probably for reporters in general, ]

[is to not fall in love on some level with your subject]

[and to really not get--to maintain]

[the objective distance that you're supposed to from your subject matter.]

[In this case, it was such an intensive and immersive experience]

[that I really found myself just getting so deeply connected]

[to the world--or sort of very rarefied world, of course, as you know--]

[of General Electric, and the people that work with General Electric,]

[and the enormity of the scale of your innovations,]

[and the ingenuity of your employees.]

[I mean, it was very hard not to ]

[apply for a job at GE once this project ended]

[because it was just captivating. ]

[It was totally enthralling and really seductive]

[to report on and observe the way that your company works. ]

[My first trip was to Schenectady to the Global Research and Development headquarters]

[and met with Mark Little--I think that was actually the very first trip.]

[We went then to Erie.]

[We went to the aviation headquarters]

[which is also in upstate New York.]

[We went down to Tampa to the IGCC facility,]

[and I went with Jim to Ireland, to Arklow,]

[which was spectacular. ]

[Another visit at the end to the upstate headquarters]

[and went into the city, met with Beth Comstock]

[at the NBC offices and then to Fairfield,]

[and that was the final visit, actually, to the great home headquarters,]

[and I met with Mr. Immelt in his office--or just in the conference room]

[near his office--and I think that was the last hurrah for me. ]

[The day after, actually, we were slated to go--I think we were supposed to go]

[in an afternoon--and my travels were delayed because of weather problems]

[and I risked missing the whole--literally missing the boat--]

[to get out to the windmills, but they were very nice,]

[and we jiggered the schedule, so that I ]

[went the following morning which was a Saturday morning,]

[and it was very misty and sort of stormy]

[as Ireland is known to be, and they had this incredible]

[--I don't know exactly--it's sort of a barge I guess,]

[but this boat that's been egineered to nudge right up to the base ]

[of these massive 400-foot structures.]

[So, it's not exactly a very heavy craft.]

[So, we were among enormous swells, these 14-foot swells]

[--that is how big they were in my memory. I could be exaggerating--]

[on this very light and bouyant craft. The winds were just tremendous, ]

[and the misty Irish air was really quite romantic]

[So, from this fog emerges--I think there are seven of them--]

[massive science fiction-esque structures]

[that, from the distance, were very delicate and elegant,]

[and as we got closer and closer were these almost foreboding beasts]

[but just totally magnificent in their sheer size and the grace.]

[I was so struck by how slow, from a distance, ]

[the blades seemed to turn as we got closer and closer]

[just the sound of the edges of the blades just whipping against the air]

[was so dramatic, and Jim and I actually got right up underneath.]

[We literally nuzzled the boat--this craft--right up onto the base of this structure,]

[and so, we touched the base, and we're right below these massive football-sized blades]

[whipping around, and we're basically screaming into the oblivion,]

[and I felt like I was on the movie Titanic or something. ]

["King of the world!" It was very dramatic and powerful. ]

[Visiting the cleaner coal plant was an incredible experience.]

[I loved that section of the trip--IGCC--]

[it's such a complex and really controversial--on some level--technology]

[just because it turns all the assumptions we have about coal on it's head,]

[and it takes a lot of explaining because ]

[it's technologically so counterintuitive and complicated and kind of futuristic.]

[So, I found that I didn't really have enough space in the piece]

[to build that scenery out because I worried ]

[that people would get too bogged down in the details]

[of how the technology works and lose the flow of the story.]

[But that experience was amazing. Linda and I went to Tampa, ]

[and we were picked up early in the morning--I think a Friday--by Vern.]

[He was this encyclopedia of knowledge]

[on both how the technology works and the policies around these kind of technologies.]

[So, we had an incredible wonkfest on the way there,]

[and I got this download of everything you'd ever want to know about IGCC]

[on the way to the site, and when we got there]

[as you know it's yet another kind of science fiction experience]

[just because the physical spectacle of this massive plant]

[just the tubes and the sheer size of these generating contraptions--]

[I wouldn't even know the terms to use at the moment.]

[It's just so overwhelming and so beautiful from the standpoint ]

[of a layperson and I'm sure even more so from the standpoint of an engineer.]

[We had a briefing on how the technology works,]

[and as I said, it's a really, really complex thing to explain,]

[and from there, we took a tour around the plant and saw actually--]

[I remember looking up and seeing this huge chamber]

[which was where one of the types of pollutants ]

[that is extracted from the gassified coal was held,]

[in this sort of reservoir where this pollutant, ]

[that otherwise would have gone into the air,]

[was captured and sequestered in this chamber,]

[and I remember looking at that and thinking that is the future right there--]

[that we can actually extract pollutants from this energy stream]

[and siphon it off and hold it and keep it from entering the atmosphere.]

[It was just so dramatic to actually physically see that it's possible--]

[that coal, which we always think of as that black lump of rock, ]

[can actually turn into a gas, a vapor, ]

[and essentially become zero emission.]

[Well, it's hard to prioritize among all of my great GE extreme adventures]

[but without a doubt, nothing could possibly eclipse the experience]

[of sitting three feet from Jeff Immelt and having the great privilege]

[of spending an hour with him and sharing his great wit and energy]

[and enthusiasm for his company, ]

[and the optimism he has for the future was just totally exhilarating.]

[Now, I remember getting to the airport after that interview and basically just]

[calling everyone who means a lot to me. ]

[[laughs] Which was I guess a lot of people.]

[No, but calling my husband and my father and my brother]

[and my closest advisers, and just saying,]

["I have met the man who is going to change the world."]

[I just could not contain my awe and just totally humble appreciation]

[for what he is trying to do. ]

[I just had total faith that this is the kind of]

[--he is a guy who welcomes the impossible.]

[He welcomes the extreme adventure]

[in the world of business and economics, ]

[and there could not be a more extreme challenge to face ]

[than trying to solve the world's toughest problems ]

[and make money while you're doing it. ]

[So, if there's ever there's ever a guy who could do it, I think it's Jeff Immelt,]

[and I would say not only was it the best moment of my trip, ]

[I would say it's easily one of the best moments of my career.]