General Electric Appliances (GE)

President and CEO Larry Johnston will sign an historic energy efficiency and

water savings agreement in Washington, D.C. today with environmental groups,

energy efficiency advocates, utilities, and state governments and other

appliance manufacturers. The agreement commits the parties to seek U.S.

Department of Energy concurrence on a new clothes washer energy-efficiency

standard. GE’s leadership role helped in the development of the agreement

that will set the clothes washer energy efficiency and water savings standards

for the appliance industry at least through 2012.

“We are pleased to have been a driving force in the negotiations that

resulted in the agreement,” said Larry Johnston, president and CEO of GE

Appliances. “The consumer always wins when corporate America, the government

and special interest groups can voluntarily reach agreement on such an

important issue. It is GE’s commitment to produce quality, energy compliant

appliances at affordable prices.”

The agreement will significantly improve energy efficiency and water

consumption rates for clothes washers and create new DOE Energy Star levels

for clothes washers and refrigerators. The signers are proposing to the

Department of Energy a two-part energy standard for clothes washers in which

all units manufactured after 2004 will be required to achieve a 1.04 modified

energy factor (MEF). In 2007, products must meet a 1.26 MEF. The current

standard corresponds to an MEF of .817. The agreement would ensure that new

washers are at least 35 percent more efficient than required by today’s

regulations.

Johnston said that GE did not wait for the DOE to finalize the agreement

before it offered environmentally friendly clothes washers. For the past two

years, GE Appliances has offered a front loading wash machine that meets the

standards that will not be required until 2007.

In addition, Johnston said that under the agreement, GE will provide water

usage information on clothes washers to The Association of Home Appliance

Manufacturers (AHAM) that will allow water usage by clothes washers to be

monitored and water consumption to be reduced. This program will begin in

2001.

GE was named three years in a row by Fortune magazine as America’s most

admired company, and two years in a row by the Financial Times as the world’s

most respected company. GE has been bringing good things to life for more

than a century, and sells products under the Monogram(R), Profile Performance

Series(TM), Profile(TM), GE, Hotpoint, and SmartWater(TM) brands. For more

information about GE Appliances, consumers can call the GE Answer Center(R) at

800.626.2000 or visit the web site at http://www.geappliances.com .