Giuliani Says Nation Lacks Energy Policy

Challenging fellow Republicans in Washington, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that the Bush administration lacked an energy policy and that greater reliance on nuclear power, ethanol-based fuels and hybrid vehicles was more realistic than President Bush’s goal of independence from foreign energy sources.

Mr. Giuliani, who is considering a presidential bid in 2008, did not criticize Mr. Bush by name, and some of his ideas reflected Republican orthodoxy about increasing energy supply. Yet in a speech to conservative thinkers from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Mr. Giuliani implicitly accused the White House of doing little to expand energy sources. Afterward, too, he expressed concern about global warming, saying that “everyone accepts the fact that it’s happening and it has an impact.”

“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.

NY Times