Skip to main content

Giuliani on Energy Policy

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave a speech last night in New York City where he touched on what he believes should be priorities for a national energy policy:
"I can't imagine how you can achieve anything in government without a plan," he said in his remarks at the Princeton Club, referring to the nation's long-range energy needs. "This is an area where we haven't had a plan in a very, very long time."

Mr. Giuliani, whose consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, advises energy companies and a liquefied natural gas project on Long Island Sound, called for easing and hastening permits for more nuclear power plants, natural gas ports and oil refineries. He said the nation could not afford another 30 years without a far-sighted energy policy.

"We've been sitting there for a generation, just hoping there'll be some magic solution," he said.

(snip)

Asked by an audience member what his advice to Mr. Bush would be, Mr. Giuliani called for fixed numerical goals and deadlines to build more nuclear power plants, encourage use of hybrid cars, and increase the supply of ethanol and other resources. Ethanol is an economic priority in Iowa, which has the nation's first presidential caucuses.

(snip)

"The idea of energy independence for the United States is maybe the wrong paradigm --— I don't know if we can ever be independent," he said. But he added, "I think you can be independent by being diversified," arguing that Americans needed to depend more on home-grown fuels and energy resources.
Though the New York Times says Giuliani was critical of President Bush, many of his suggestions are already part of Administration policy.

For more, see the AP account of the speech, or visit the Giuliani Blog. Thanks to Taegan Goddard for the pointer.

UPDATE: Ryan Sager has more. Thanks to Instapundit for the pointer.

UPDATE: A lot of folks are liking what they heard from Giuliani, including Hot Air, Jay Reding, Tinkerty Tonk and TexasXtreme.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Decision '08 and What If?.

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin