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Ultimately, GE's contradictory behavior on the environment is completely rational. Selling green goods represents growth and profit. Spending money to comply with antipollution laws and paying for cleanups represent cost centers--and every GE exec knows you reduce cost and feed growth. No wonder, then, that Immelt dismisses the naysayers on either side of his green initiative--the environmentalists who grouse that GE is being hypocritical and the conservatives who complain that companies should not spend an extra cent on the environment since that wastes economic resources. "There are just some people you don't listen to," he says, getting animated. "I'm not gonna be burdened by stuff we did 50 years ago in terms of our strategies going forward." What's his measure of success? Profits, of course; a boost to employee morale; a little saving of the planet on the side. Call it greenwashing if you will. To Immelt, it's just good business. --With reporting by Perry Bacon Jr./Washington