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TO BE VOTED ON AT THE MEETING
Shareowner Proposal No. 5
The Sisters of St. Dominic
of Caldwell, New Jersey, 52 Old Swartswood Station Road, Newton, NJ 07860, and
other filers have notified us that they intend to submit the following proposal
at this year’s meeting:
“Whereas:
General Electric disposed of at least 1.3 million pounds of PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyls) into the Hudson River. An additional large amount
seeped beneath GE plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, NY, some of which is
currently discharging into the Hudson River. The Environmental Protection
Agency designated 200 miles of the Hudson River as a Superfund site in 1984. In
February 1976, a state Department of Conservation Hearing Officer, in a case
against GE, described GE’s actions as ‘corporate abuse’ and
found that the record ‘overwhelmingly’ demonstrated that GE
violated NY State law by discharging large quantities of PCBs into the Hudson
River.
“The federal
government regulates PCBs as a known animal carcinogen and probable human
carcinogen. Additional independent evidence indicates that PCBs may affect the
immune and reproductive systems, cause endocrine disruption and have
neurological effects.
“Sampling by the
state and federal agencies has determined that PCB concentrations in the Upper
Hudson sediments range as high as 40 times the state standard. EPA determined
in 1999 that the health risks from eating PCB-contaminated fish from the Upper
Hudson exceeds the EPA protective level by 1000 times.
“Despite
repeated government and other studies determining that PCBs are a serious
threat, GE engages in extensive public relations efforts, suggesting that
‘there is no credible evidence that PCBs in the Hudson River pose a risk
to people or wildlife,’ (GE spokesman Mark Behan, EPA Reports Dangers in
Eating Fish From Upper Hudson River, Associated Press, August 4, 1999).
“Despite the
EPA’s January, 2002 Record of Decision calling for the removal of 150,000
pounds of PCBs from the Hudson River, GE persists in its lawsuit challenging
the constitutionality of Superfund legislation. We believe this lawsuit places
the EPA’s decision and the remediation of other Superfund sites in
jeopardy.
“Resolved:
Shareholders request the Board of Directors to report by August 1, 2003, at
reasonable cost and excluding confidential information, its annual expenditures
by category and specific site (where applicable) for each year from 1990-2002,
on attorney’s fees, expert fees, lobbying, and public relations/media
expenses, relating in any way to the health and environmental consequences of
PCB exposures, GE’s remediation of sites contaminated by PCBs, and/or
hazardous substance laws and regulations, as well as expenditures on actual
remediation of PCB contaminated sites.
“Statement of
Support: This resolution has been sponsored by dozens of religious, public and
private pension funds. While plans to clean-up the Hudson River are under way,
it is long overdue that our company discloses to shareholders the actual costs
of its long term resistance to the remediation of this and other toxic sites.
Shareholders have the right to this transparency. This is a critical moment in
the history of GE to step out as a social and environmentally responsible
company.”
Our board of directors recommends a vote against this proposal.
GE has undertaken
substantial efforts to remediate the effects of past waste disposal, to comply
with current standards of environmental protection and worker safety, and to
prevent future environmental harm. We have reached voluntary agreements with
government authorities on our remediation responsibility at the great majority
of sites which are in the remedial phase and are in discussions on others. In
addition, we are accountable to many units and levels of government, both in
the United States and in other nations, for sound environmental practices, and
have an extensive, detailed program for complying with environmental laws. As
part of this accountability, we comply with governmental reporting requirements
regarding environmental matters.
Since last year’s
resolution, we have been working constructively with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency on the remediation project selected by EPA for the upper
Hudson River. We have submitted what is known as a “Good Faith
Offer” under the Superfund law and begun negotiations with EPA to
undertake the work called for in the EPA decision. To that end, we have
successfully negotiated a cooperative agreement with EPA to undertake about $15
million of sampling, which is the first step in the implementation of the Hudson
remedy. This agreement will result in GE taking more than 30,000 samples in the
Upper Hudson to determine the location of PCBs and sediments as a key initial
step in remedy design. In addition, as requested by EPA, we reimbursed EPA the
first portion of past costs incurred by EPA in undertaking the review of the
Hudson matter. We and EPA are now negotiating an agreement by which we would
undertake the design and engineering of the remedy.
Under these circumstances—a significant company program, voluntary
agreement with government on remediation of virtually all sites and regulatory
requirements of localities, states, the federal government and other
nations—we do not believe that creating the type of report requested by
the proponents would help us improve our environmental performance. Therefore,
we recommend a vote against this proposal.
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