Boston, MA - On Monday morning, as Boston College students assemble to participate in the commencement ceremony in Alumni Stadium, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) will offer them some advice:  don't listen to whatever Jeff Immelt tells you, it is better to be an inventor or innovator than a rent-seeker.

"Jeff Immelt is the worst sort of example to hold up to the graduating seniors: someone who pursues policies that destroy jobs, seeks government subsidies for ideas that fail in the marketplace, and supports liberal politicians who seek to expand government control of every aspect of society," said Evan Dent, CFACT Massachusetts Director.

CFACT has criticized corporate leaders like Immelt who use their immense wealth and power to lobby for industry sector-crushing regulations, such as Cap and Trade, that increase their market share while crushing their smaller competitors.  For example, GE has lobbied Congress to ban the incandescent light bulb in order to increase demand for their compact florescent light bulb, aka CFL.  GE's domestic plants manufacturing incandescent bulbs will shut down and GE CFLs will be manufactured in India.  It is particularly ironic as GE's founder, Thomas Edison, often said that he never perfected an invention he did not "think about in terms of the service it might give to others."

"You really have to wonder what the folks at Boston College were thinking by inviting him to speak.  It is because of people like Jeff Immelt that these young grads are entering an uncertain marketplace.  I wish them well, and hope they all achieve great success through hard work, rather than fighting for a spot at the government's trough," concluded Dent.

CFACT is a national non-profit organization on the cutting edge of today's environmental debate.  CFACT believes most consumer and environmental problems can best be met by better unleashing the power of the free-enterprise system and the ingenuity of science and technology.

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