Oil-Soaked Saudi Arabia Sets Goal of 100% Renewable Energy | Care2 Causes
Saudi Arabia is one of the largest oil-producing countries in the world. Despite the fact that oil has been Saudi Arabia’s cash crop for decades, the country recently admitted that it does not represent the energy source of the future. EcoWatch reports that during last week’s Global Economic Symposium in Rio de Janeiro, Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud of Saudi Arabia said,
“I would like to see Saudi Arabia using 100 percent renewable energy within my lifetime.” ¯ (He’s 67, by the way, so we’re talking about years, not decades).
Wow. When the country from which America imports most of its oil announces that it wants an economy based on renewable energy, it should be a wake up call.
Too bad the oil and coal industries have paid to stuff our ears full of cotton and handed out pro-fossil fuel propaganda like sleeping pills. We can’t hear the alarm bells that have jarred Saudi Arabia into action.
In fact, Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries in the Middle East are banking on the fact that Americans will maintain their oil addiction up until the very last possible second. “I see renewable energy sources helping to prolong our continued export of crude oil,”¯ Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, told The Wall Street Journal.
This means that while his own country begins the shift to renewable energy for its own power needs, it will continue exporting to America and other oil-dependent countries, charging top dollar for ever barrel.