Recent News: Philippines, Erie, Pensioner, Tax-Exempt Facility, Jeffert Immelt, Real Estate, ConocoPhillips, and GE Energy

GE partners local firm to build "green" living communities in Philippines
General Electric (GE) and Philippine real estate giant Ayala Land Inc. on Tuesday announced their partnership to build a massive ecologically-sustainable land project in the southern suburban of the Philippine capital of Metro Manila....

GE here at crucial time
The graffiti has been removed, garbage collected and billboards hung to invite hundreds of General Electric Co. shareholders to Erie.There's no telling if it will do anything to improve their mood.GE shareholders and executives, who will convene their annual shareholders meeting Wednesday morning, arrive at what could be a crucial time for the world's largest conglomerate...

An angry GE pensioner (Editorial)
General Electric Company CEO Jeffrey Immelt has some explaining to do at tomorrow's annual meeting in Erie, Pennsylvania in the wake of a first-quarter earnings report that rattled the stocks of shareholders, including many GE retirees in Pittsfield and Berkshire County. Unless Mr. Immelt has suddenly become incompetent, GE's difficulties suggest that the company is not immune to the economic realities that plague other companies, no matter what shareholders and top executives believe...

GE says it wants tax-exempt facility
A multimillion-dollar plant to handle toxic PCBs dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River is the focus of a tax fight between General Electric Co. and the town of Fort Edward. Town officials were stunned when GE, which is building the plant on 110 acres along the Champlain Canal, argued last month that the property should be tax-exempt, Supervisor Mitchell Suprenant said Monday....

Immelt Resists Calls to Shrink GE, Says Strategy Is `Intact'
Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said he will resist calls to shrink General Electric Co. beyond an existing plan that includes reducing the company's consumer businesses in slowing economies. ``There are more reviews and intensity, but no real change to the strategy,'' Immelt said in an interview in advance of tomorrow's annual meeting, his first face-to-face meeting with investors since this month's surprise drop in profit. ``The strategy remains intact.''...

How real estate tripped up GE
Anyone who thinks the credit crunch will soon be behind us ought to look more closely at General Electric’s first-quarter results. While the headlines immediately following the disappointing numbers focused on GE as a bellwether for the broader economy, the company’s problems more clearly illustrate how much further real estate prices have to fall before the crunch is over...

ConocoPhillips-GE tie-up in waste water treatment
CONOCOPHILLIPS yesterday said GE Water & Process Technologies has become an equal co-venturer in the former’s Water Sustainability Centre (WSC) at the Qatar Science & Technology Park in Qatar...

GE Energy Executive to Serve on DOE-EAC
GE Energy's general manager of marketing for transmission and distribution business, John McDonald, has been invited by the US Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman, to serve a one-year term as a member of the US Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee...