The Good News From Upstate New York is that the Election Might Be Bad News for General Electric, the Polluter of the Hudson

When Gerald Solomon represented part of the upper Hudson valley in Congress, he was so ardent in his opposition to EPA’s plan to force General Electric to dredge the million pounds of PCBs it dumped into the river that environmentalists referred to him as Congressman Gerald Solomon, R-GE. When Solomon retired, a Republican clone named John Sweeney replaced him, and the R-GE joke was just as appropriate.

But Sweeney got thrashed last week by Kristen Gillibrand, and the change might mean that for cleaning up the Hudson, the years of obstruction are over. The Albany Times-Union explains.

GE, by the way, is mounting an aggressive campaign to reposition itself as environmentally responsible. I don’t buy it. The company’s attitude toward the Hudson and PCBs has been irresponsible, in my opinion, since the beginning, and until it changes, a public relations campaign is a whitewash and people who think GE has changed are dupes.