Costs of PCB Contamination Remediation

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, 8/4/99).

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.

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