Iraq Signs Billion - Dollar Power Deals With GE, Siemens

[cal04]

Source: Reuters

Iraq has signed preliminary deals worth billions of dollars with General Electric Co and Siemens for equipment to almost double electricity generation capacity, an energy official said on Saturday.

The deals with GE, Siemens and a third company would be worth a total of $7 billion to $8 billion, Iraq's Electricity Minister Karim Waheed told Reuters.

Years of war, sanctions and neglect have battered Iraq's power grid and the country suffers chronic power shortages. The capital Baghdad receives only a few hours of electricity a day. The deals would mark a big step in the country's reconstruction, Waheed said.

"These deals will help us to end the electricity supply problem by 2012," Waheed said on a private visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-us-iraq-ge-siemens.html

[Eric J in MN]

1. The MSNBC show "Countdown Iraq"

...which portrayed the Iraq War as inevitable paid off for GE, owner of NBC.

[Newsjock]

2. Then not a single penny of bailout money to GE Capital, Inc.

They can pay their own damn bills with this blood money.

[McCamy Taylor]

3. GE makes much more if it gets to build the nukes it wants to build.

And even more if oil prices go down and the U.S. economy is saved, because a manufacturer is always going to do better with lower overhead and with clients that have money to spend. And with cheap, immigrant labor, too.

Nothing is simple for GE.

[OakCliffDem]

5. Ya reckon Iraq could be in the the market for a couple of Nuke in the future?

Afterall, Iran has them and we need to maintain a ballance of power in the region
:sarcasm:

[aviationpm]

4. This when our grid is insufficient at home.

We're producing green power, but can't even transfer it to homes and industry.