General Electric is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar PR blitz to try to sway the Bush administration to withdraw a proposed plan to clean up the Hudson River. The Clinton-era plan calls for dredging a 40-mile stretch of the river to remove PCBs dumped there for decades by GE. The company would have to pick up the $460 million tab for the dredging. GE claims that the Hudson is naturally cleaning itself and that dredging now would make the pollution problem worse. In its ads, GE says it has the support of local communities in opposing the dredging. But opinion polls show significant support for the Clinton plan, which has been backed by 66 communities along the river. Still, the GE offensive may be working — the New York attorney general warned yesterday that the U.S. EPA is considering scaling back the dredging plan.
