Scientists & Engineers for America

Rudolph Giuliani (Former Presidential Candidate)


Rudolph Giuliani
R-NY


Biography

GIULIANI, Rudolph “Rudy” William, former Mayor of New York City; born in Brooklyn, NY on May 28, 1944; graduated from Manhattan College 1965; received JD from New York University Law School 1968; clerk for U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Executive United States Attorney; employee of U.S. Attorney 1970; Chief of Narcotics Unit 1973; Associate Deputy Attorney General 1975; private practice as lawyer 1977-present; appointed Associate Attorney General 1981; appointed Attorney General, Southern District of New York 1983; unsuccessful candidate for mayor of New York City 1989; elected as Republican for Mayor of New York City 1994-1997; reelected as Mayor to New York City 1998-2001; candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.

Login/Register to EditRUDOLPH GIULIANI'S RECORD ON SCIENCE

Mayor Guiliani dropped out of the 2008 Republican Presidential Primary on January 29, and endorsed Senator McCain for the Republican nomination.

Energy

Former Mayor Giuliani’s plan on energy focuses on “a national strategy that emphasizes diversification, innovation, and conservation.” First discussed at length at a campaign stop in Iowa on July 18, 2007, the plan includes an “energy portfolio” which places an emphasis on the use of nuclear power, renewable energy, ethanol, biofuels, clean coal, and natural gas. Giuliani proposes creating an EnergyStat program that would help the government track energy “indicators” which are tied to progress on energy independence and climate change projects. The proposal also looks for efficiency and conservation to reduce America’s demand for energy and to maintain, secure, and expand the existing energy infrastructure. Giuliani also thinks the United States should utilize its expansive coal reserves in order to wean itself off of foreign oil.

On the campaign trail, he has remarked that “There’s no one single solution,” but clean coal, biodiesel, nuclear power, ethanol, conservation, and refineries all have “to be expanded 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent.”

Evolution/Intelligent Design

In a Republican presidential debate in June 2007, Giuliani did not raise his hand in response to a question of whether any of the candidates did not believe in evolution.

Global Warming

At a campaign stop in Silicon Valley in February 2007, Giuliani acknowledged that climate change is occurring but sees the important question as “how much of it is happening because of natural climate changes and how much of it is happening because of human intervention."He also remarked that the current debate on global warming is "is almost unnecessary . . . because we should be dealing with pollution anyway."

Healthcare

Giuliani’s main commitment is to “give Americans more control over, and access to, healthcare with affordable and portable free-market solutions.” On July 31, 2007, the Giuliani campaign released their health care plan to the public. The plan calls for expanding health care by reforming the tax system to include an income exclusion for people without employer coverage. The proposal also includes a health insurance credit program to help make insurance more affordable for people and families in low-income brackets. It looks to increase competition among private insurers through price transparency, provider qualifications, and risk-adjusted outcomes.

Stem Cell Research

Giuliani is in favor of loosening the restrictions on government funding of embryonic stem cells within strict limits “as long as we are not creating life to destroy it.”






Speeches on Science and Health Issues


SCIENCE IN THE DEBATES:

NBC Republican Debate, January 24, 2008

Question: Mayor Giuliani, I have a follow-up on a potential catastrophe. Florida has 1,200 miles of beautiful coast which can be threatened with climate change, global warming, in a major way, as the world's population goes from 6 billion to 9 billion and the level of greenhouse gases doubles over the next 20 to 30 years. And yet you are against a mandatory cap on greenhouse gases. Why?

Giuliani: The very best way to do it is to support the technologies that are alternatives that can save the environment, and to get us to the point where those technologies can actually take over. We haven't -- we haven't licensed a nuclear power plant in 30 years. France is 80 percent nuclear; we're 20 percent nuclear, we're going down to 15 percent nuclear. We have to crack through there.

We need to expand the use of hybrid vehicles. We need to expand the use of clean coal. Carbon sequestration is expensive, but it's a process that works. We have more coal reserves in the United States than they have oil reserves in Saudi Arabia. I prefer incentives for these new industries. Same thing is true with biofuels.

We should expand biofuels, the way Brazil has done. We should expand wind, solar, hydroelectric. We should expand natural gas, liquid natural gas. We should have a project like putting the man on a moon, the way we did back in the '50s and '60s. It should be a major national project, to be energy independent. That's a matter of national security. It's also the best way, the very best way, to protect against global warming. Just think about this. If we did everything we could, we put all these caps on, all these negative incentives on, we would crush American industry. And China and India would be sending out more greenhouse gases than we could ever match.

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MSNBC/CNBC Republican Debate, October 9, 2007

Question: Let me zero in on oil. Mayor Giuliani, under your leadership, how will this country become energy -- oil independent and strike the right balance between environmental conservation and oil exploration?

Giuliani: This is a matter of national security. You've got to support all the alternatives. There's no magic bullet here -- biofuels, nuclear power. We haven't licensed a nuclear power plant in 30 years. We haven't had a new refinery in 30 years. We're on hold. Hydroelectric power, solar power, wind power, conservation -- we have to support all of these things. We've got to support them in a positive way, and this is an area in which the federal government, the president has to treat this like putting a man on the moon. It is a matter of national security. One of the ways to win the Islamic terrorist war against us is for us to be energy independent.

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CNN Republican Debate, June 5, 2007

Question: Mayor Giuliani, sea levels around the world are rising. Average temperatures are increasing. A U.N. report written by scientists from 113 countries recently said that climate change is very likely man-made and may affect us for centuries to come.

Is science wrong on global warming? And what, if any, steps would you take as president to address the issue of climate change?

Giuliani: I think we have to accept the view that scientists have that there is global warming and that human operation, human condition, contributes to that. And the fact is that there is a way to deal with it and to address it in a way that we can also accomplish energy independence, which we need as a matter of national security.

It’s frustrating and really dangerous for us to see money going to our enemies because we have to buy oil from certain countries. We should be supporting all the alternatives. We need a project similar to putting a man on the moon. …

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MSNBC/Politico.com Republican Debate, May 3, 2007

Question: We have to go down the line again. It's always fun to ask these questions down the line. We have Mr. Reagan here. The camera will not focus on her, but I will tell you, it will now focus on you. Mrs. Reagan wants to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Will that progress under your administration…?

Giuliani: As long as we're not creating life in order to destroy it, as long as we're not having human cloning, and we limit it to that, and there is plenty of opportunity to then use federal funds in those situations where you have limitations. So I would support it with those limitations, like Senator Coleman's bill in Congress.

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