"General Electric expects $500 million charge for NY river cleanup" (GE)

The saga of GE's Hudson River pollution scam was one of the reasons we didn't much listen to their "Ecoimagination" pitch.
From Reuters:

General Electric Co expects an after-tax charge of $500 million in the fourth quarter to cover its remaining costs to dredge toxic chemicals it dumped in New York's Hudson River more than three decades ago.

The largest U.S. conglomerate said on Thursday it expected one-time gains, including a favorable tax settlement, to offset the charge and did not change its overall fourth-quarter forecast.

It confirmed that the company now expects its sale of a majority stake in NBC Universal to No. 1 U.S. cable operator Comcast Corp to close in January 2011, rather than this month.

Analysts, on average, expect the world's largest maker of jet engines and electric turbines to report a 14 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit to earn $3.45 billion, or 32 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
GE shares were down 10 cents at $17.96 in premarket trading.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week ordered the Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE to dredge deeper into the river to remove sediment that included polychlorinated biphenyls -- or PCBs -- which have been shown to cause cancer.

GE dumped the chemicals, which it had used as an insulator in electric components, into a 40-mile stretch of the river starting outside the capital Albany, some 150 miles north of New York City, for three decades prior to discontinuing their use in 1977....MORE

We have hundreds of posts on the behemoth, here are a few, you can use the blog search box for more:
May 2009
After 25 Years of Stalling, GE Starts Cleaning The Hudson
May 2010 
Eco-imagination: "EPA Cleanup Tactic to Face GE Challenge in D.C. Circuit" (GE)
Dec. 2010 
The browning of General Electric: "Seeking a bigger role in the oil business" (GE)