Monday, January 21, 2008
News Rudy Giuliani and the possible business of toll-roads in Georgia
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Mon, Jan 21, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson wrote an excellent piece in the January 2007 issue examining Rudy Giuliani — presidential hopeful and "America's mayor" — and his lucrative foray post-9/11 into the business and legal world. Bracewell & Giuliani — formerly known as Bracewell & Patterson before Mr. 9/11 joined the team — represents one of Georgia's biggest polluters:
By the time Giuliani became part of [Bracewell & Paterson], in early 2005, it had also become the go-to law firm for major polluters: oil and gas as well as coal companies. Among its significant clients are Chevron/Texaco, Pacific Gas & Electric, Dynegy, Southern Company, Valero Energy, and Shell Oil.
Emphasis added. That fact's been widely reported, known for quite some time, and notable if only because it shows a well-connected local company doing business with one of the nation's most well-connected men. But included in Shnayerson's piece is information about another company Giuliani's firm represents: Macquarie, an Australian banking group that specializes in such public-private initiatives as toll roads and the uber-controversial Trans-Texas Corridor.
During his State of the State address, Gov. Sonny Perdue suggested that newly appointed DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham should oversee the State Road and Tollway Authority, which may hint at some more serious discussion of public-private initiatives. Abraham has said on record that the agency isn't poised to take on such projects yet in its current mismanaged state, but she's hinted in the past that it's an area in which the DOT needs to explore its options.
For your enlightenment, read the VF piece about Giuliani. Note Macquarie's dealings with the former mayor's businesses and the opportunities those connections allowed. And just in case we hear some more concrete language from the state about allowing private companies to build and charge for access to roads, remember to keep the name of that Australian banking outfit filed somewhere in your mind.
Shnayerson ends the piece with a beautiful summation of just why any of this matters:
In the businesses that Giuliani built and bought these last six years, more deals have yet to be examined, more dots connected in the picture of his great financial success. But enough are there already, with lines between them, for a shape to have clearly emerged. It’s a picture of a politician leading a parade, as Mayor Giuliani so often did. Only the marchers behind him aren’t drum majorettes or wartime veterans or firefighters or police. They’re a ragtag band of Texas lawyers and energy lobbyists, penny-stock sharpies and security-industry entrepreneurs, agog with visions of the ultimate pay-to-play presidency.
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
'Ex-gays' gather outside Atlanta this weekend 6
Meanwhile human rights groups fight the notion that "ex-gay" is a thing
-
CNN cancels Atlanta debate 3
Everybody cry
-
ARC's new map of transportation-tax projects is suitable for framing 6
Voters will decide 1-cent sales tax measure in July
- More »
Author Archives
-
Study: Downtown train terminal could create additional 15,700 jobs 17
CAP report says project could generate $65 million in annual tax revenues
-
Deal wants to spend $28 million to purchase, renovate Fort McPherson buildings 3
One facility eyed for high-tech bioscience research
- More »
Comments (0)