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Rudy Giuliani.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who served as mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, talks up energy independence as a critical component of national security. He acknowledges that climate change is happening and that humans contribute to it at least to some extent, but he doesn't often address the issue or other environmental concerns.

Watch Giuliani answer a question about global warming at a New Hampshire GOP debate on June 3, 2007:

Watch Giuliani talk about energy and gas prices on the Late Show with David Letterman:

Watch Giuliani respond to a question about carbon caps:

Watch Giuliani explain his stance on energy independence during a June 12, 2007, speech in New Hampshire:

What did we miss? Tell us below in comments. We'll update this page as the presidential campaign continues.

Kate Sheppard and Todd Hymas Samkara contributed to this fact sheet.

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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- whose name is often bandied about as a possible 2008 GOP presidential contender -- added a splash of deep red to his moderate-Republican profile when he announced last week his decision to join a Texas-based law firm known for representing heavy-hitting energy companies.

Rudy Giuliani.

Photo: NYC.gov.

Enron, ChevronTexaco, Pacific Gas & Electric, Dynegy, and Southern Company are among the many powerhouses on the client roster of Bracewell & Giuliani -- formerly Bracewell & Patterson. Having negotiated billions of dollars in transactions for fossil-fuel and power-generation facilities, and having defended some of those same clients against charges of illegal pollution, Bracewell has earned a reputation as one of the most powerful law firms in the energy sector.

The firm is equally potent on the D.C. lobbying front. It is Bracewell, for instance, that represents the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council -- a huge coalition of utilities including Southern Company and First Energy that lobbies for industry-friendly policies. And it is Bracewell that employs Scott Segal and Frank Maisano, the two most ubiquitous voices in the media representing energy-industry interests -- most recently advocating reform of the Clean Air Act's new-source review provision, passage of the Clear Skies Act, and implementation of the Bush administration's plan for dealing with mercury emissions from power plants.

Maisano and Segal were brimming with delight over the announcement. "It's always flattering that one of your name partners is considered a man of presidential timbre," Segal told Muckraker. Added Maisano, "Giuliani is a master lawyer and towering public figure ... He's going to help expand Bracewell's reputation nationally and internationally."

That is not to say that Giuliani will be turning his attention to energy matters specifically. Bracewell has a broad range of practices, representing companies working in health care, telecommunications, nanotechnology, and beyond. Giuliani came aboard to establish the firm's first New York City branch, meaning he will spend little time on Capitol Hill and "won't be doing anything in the way of lobbying or government relations," according to his spokesperson, Sunny Mindel. But he will be using his experience and reputation "to expand on the existing focus of Bracewell," she said. Of course, the clout that Giuliani brings to the law firm could only redouble its influence in the Beltway.

And Giuliani is not new to the business of representing energy companies. His consulting company, Giuliani Partners, which he founded post-9/11, was hired by Entergy Nuclear Northeast to help with security and emergency planning at its nuclear power plants, and by TransCanada and Shell to help smooth the way for their joint plan to build an offshore liquefied natural gas facility on Long Island Sound.

As mayor of New York City, Giuliani's environmental record was mixed -- "pretty unremarkable, and at times dismal," said Ashok Gupta, chief energy economist for the New York City-based Natural Resources Defense Council. But he noted that Giuliani was "supportive" of the environmentally ambitious green-development projects of his close friend and colleague George Pataki, governor of New York.

While Giuliani has been cozy with the Bush administration on national-security issues and hawkish on military strategy, political analysts have always characterized him as socially liberal (as any mayor of New York is wont to be), and put him squarely in the camp of moderate Republicans including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), and Pataki -- all of whom have championed environmental protections.

According to David Sandalow, an environmental scholar at the Brookings Institution and former assistant secretary of state under President Clinton, Giuliani's decision to join Bracewell raises a critical question: "Is he a Pataki Republican or a Bush Republican?"

Some suggest that Giuliani's alliance with Bracewell means he's tipping rightward. "Bracewell employees have been major contributors to the Bush campaigns," noted Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project. Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, also pointed out that "by having his name in the title of one of Texas' most prominent law firms, Giuliani could establish convenient fund-raising ties with energy executives."

Indeed, Rich Kinder, chair of the Houston-based energy company Kinder Morgan, whose wife is a top Bush fund-raiser, sang Giuliani's praises in the Houston Chronicle last week: "I think he would be an excellent rainmaker."

Mindel, Giuliani's spokesperson, insisted that his decision to join Bracewell "has nothing at all to do with political aspirations," a point Giuliani has stressed himself. She added that he has not made any decisions about running for office.

Whether or not his latest career move was motivated by presidential ambitions, it seems Giuliani has chosen to side with old-guard Texas business interests rather than the small cohort of moderate Republicans that is trying to reverse its party's anti-environment agenda.

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Instant correction: Those of you who perused Muckraker early this morning or over the weekend may have read that New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) was prepared to sign a major letter from mayors and other local officials calling for the federal government to do more to combat global warming.

Not so keen to be green?

Well, forget it. After appearing ready to sign on the dotted line, thanks to some arm twisting from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D), Giuliani's office backed out late last Friday night and will not be an official party to the declaration.

Giuliani's reversal took us somewhat by surprise, as we imagined the New York mayor might have relished the opportunity to establish a beachhead on an issue of serious concern to upscale, suburban voters in Westchester County, New York's bellwether region.

We were not the only ones taken by surprise. Brandon MacGillis at Ozone Action, one of the letter's sponsoring groups, says he had been working with Giuliani's office for a month before coming up empty-handed.

"He could have used the environmental support" in an expected Senate bid against First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, MacGillis said.

Instead, Giuliani lands in the camp (which includes Texas Gov. George W. Bush) of those who say they are concerned about global warming but are not willing to endorse current federal efforts to combat the phenomenon.

MacGillis originally thought Giuliani might be enticed to sign the letter after Joel A. Miele, commissioner of New York's Department of Environmental Protection, wrote Ozone Action back in June saying New York was in "strong support of the purposes" expressed in the global warming letter. Note, however, the use of the word "purposes." The letter went on to say that the "scientific understanding" of global warming "remains incomplete."

While Giuliani's decision not to sign robs the letter's sponsors of a major news-making presence, they have nonetheless compiled a huge list of signatories, some 567 mayors and other officials from 47 states. The letter, to be released Tuesday, calls on the federal government to do more to combat a problem local officials say costs them dearly in clean-up costs from increasingly severe hurricanes, floods, droughts, and other disasters potentially linked to global warming.

Signers include Chicago mayor Daley and mayors from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Denver, Portland, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Cincinnati, Miami, Minneapolis, Atlanta, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Pres. Clinton is expected to issue a statement in support of the letter on Tuesday.

Last week, we told you all about the squealing pig the Sierra Club brought to a Washington press event at which the group unveiled a new report on corporate hog farms.

This week, we turn to Defenders of Wildlife and the gray wolf they brought to their reception at a conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in L.A. last week.

Alas, we could not be there to see the fanged, furry beast in person (and we are hurt that we weren't invited), but we have received canine reports and, as ever, endeavor to bring you the story.

Unlike the Sierra Club's pig-with-no-name, this wolf actually had a moniker: Ambassador Wolf Kenai (sounds like a geeky Star Trek character, doesn't it?).

And Kenai was not, despite some early reports, in any kind of a cage.

On loan from the San Diego Zoo, he was, in fact, simply led around the Defenders event on a leash and allowed to lick several reporters' faces. He even reportedly nuzzled up to some officials from the Interior Department, though we find this hard to believe.

Defenders also apparently had all the necessary permits allowing them to bring an endangered species to their event. So there doesn't appear to be a scandal here. Defenders' spokesperson Joan Moody did acknowledge, though, that Kenai was "more scared of the people than they were of him."

Al Gore's presidential campaign has had it rough of late, getting mauled in the press over recent polls in New Hampshire, New York, and elsewhere showing Bill Bradley drawing close to even and continuing his amazingly long media roll as the enigmatic, upstart threat to Gore. (We wonder when Gore will become the upstart threat to Bradley.)

So one can hardly blame the Gore camp for looking to score points, any points, against Dollar Bill, which they attempted to do last week by peddling this line of attack: Bradley, by accepting the endorsement of Friends of the Earth, which once argued against continuing the federal subsidy for ethanol producers, demonstrated a callous lack of respect for Iowa's corn farmers.

Okay. So if Gore should get the nod from the NAFTA-hating AFL/CIO, will he be selling out all the moderate New Dems who constantly spout off on the need to dump old protectionist thinking and step into the light of unfettered globo-capitalism? Will Gore say thanks but no thanks, you opposed NAFTA, GATT, and fast-track trade negotiating status for my boss, so take your nomination and shove it? We doubt it.

It's not looking good for Marta Brown, widow of late Rep. George Brown (D-Calif.), who appears to have narrowly lost the Democratic nod in the special primary to fill Brown's seat, despite the enthusiastic backing of the Sierra Club and some gun-control activists. Brown, however, has not yet conceded the Dem nod to state Sen. Joe Baca. On the GOP side, 1998 candidate Elia Priozzi cruised to the nomination as expected. ... Infamous foot-fondler Dick Morris, in his column in the D.C. newspaper The Hill, touted recent poll numbers, both his own and John Zogby's, showing that likely GOP primary voters, particularly those under 35, strongly support candidates willing to use the government to protect the environment. ... Remember that flap over Ted Stewart, the would-be federal judge in Utah whom enviros love to hate? Well, the Clinton administration's decision to nominate him for a judgeship was supposed to clear the decks for a number of judges Clinton actually wants on the bench. Hasn't happened. The Senate is still tied up in knots over Stewart. Which confirms the findings of Citizens for Independent Courts, a bipartisan group that released a study in Washington showing that the average time it takes the Senate to act on judicial nominations has skyrocketed from 38 days in 1977-78 to 201 days in 1997-98.

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New York City is working on a deal to sell 63 parcels of land used for community gardens for $3 million to the Trust for Public Land, an arrangement that would keep the gardens open to citizens. Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) had wanted to sell 114 of New York's community gardens to the highest bidder this week, but his administration is partially backing off after facing three lawsuits and many angry citizens. Protestors dressed as plants and ladybugs and blowing kazoos have turned out en masse. One man, dressed as a sunflower, screamed, "The gardens must be saved!" from a perch in a ginkgo tree in front of City Hall.

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