Middle East Going Green
Welcome to Masdar: The "Clean City" Being Built by
Middle Eastern "Drug" Kingpins — with an Assist from MIT
As strange as it may sound... the Middle East's biggest oil powerhouses are right now pumping nearly all of their fat oil profits like mad in renewable energy.
That's right: The countries that control the world's largest oil reserves are investing billions of dollars in renewable energy.
* In July, a company owned by the government of Abu Dhabi bought an ownership stake in Tesla, a U.S.-based manufacturer of electric cars.
* This summer, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali Ibrahim Al Naimi, announced that his country is planning to make solar energy an important pillar of the national energy mix... and in September, he introduced Saudi Arabia's new research hub designed to "leverage the diversified and rich natural resources of this country to find sustainable and innovative solutions."
* The United Arab Emirates — the world's third-largest oil exporter — lobbied hard to become home to the 150-nation International Renewable Energy Agency and won the bid this past June.
But here's the blockbuster...
Portrait of an Addiction
It's no secret — the United States is hopelessly addicted to oil...just like a junkie in constant need of a heroin fix.
And while our leaders have talked about ending our addiction once and for all, the truth is there is no rehab facility on the planet that can cure us of our need for foreign sources of energy.
Take a look at just how bad this addiction has grown over the years:
The Numbers Behind Our Addiction
Americans consume 400 million gallons of gasoline each day...
In 2008 alone, the U.S. spent $475 billion on foreign oil
13 million barrels of oil are imported every 24 hours...
In fact, in the five minutes it takes you to read this letter, we've imported another 45,139 barrels of oil...
In spite of this tremendous consumption... it's been 32 years since the last new oil refinery was built in the United States
I don't have to tell you just how dangerous this addiction has grown.
It has not only cost us over one trillion dollars... it's also cost us our national security.
Like it or not, we're completely powerless. And I'm not the only one who feels this way...
"We are at the mercy of the suppliers of oil. We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year importing oil and, so, we are heading toward a train wreck." — U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven ChuIn addition to the investment in Tesla, Abu Dhabi has also invested $22 billion to build the world's first entirely renewably powered city: Masdar.
Masdar City will host 50,000 people by 2016 who will live and work without cars or fossil fuels.
And Abu Dhabi's leaders aren't kidding around — not only have they set forth on an aggressive timeline and earmarked $22 billion for investment... they've even enlisted the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a partner in this project.
The goal for the project is clear: they're building a city that uses water and fuel with the smallest footprint possible.
There will be NO automobile traffic in Masdar; only public transportation will be permitted... and the city's perimeter wall will help keep out extreme desert winds and high temperatures, allowing for cool temperatures to prevail throughout the city.
Seriously...
The world's first carbon-neutral city is going to sprout up in the middle of the desert? Literally right on top of billions of dollars worth of oil?
You have to ask yourself : Why would a major oil producer — one that controls 8% of the world's oil reserves — spend billions of dollars to launch such an aggressive renewable energy initiative?
The answer is simple...
The very people who, because of their outstanding luck with geography, are literally sitting on billions of dollars worth of oil are now racing to invest in clean technologies with very good reason...
They can clearly see that the supply of the precious "drug" they control is running dangerously low. So by getting a jump on renewables, they'll be sure to sell every last drop — at exorbitant prices — to addicts like the United States.
Make no mistake: The people who have controlled the oil in the Middle East for the past four decades have made an obscene amount of money.
They've had a direct pipeline into the U.S. Government's bank account — and they'd like to keep it that way.
These people are far from stupid.
They see the end of the line for the "drug deal" they've been running — and they want to be in position so that when it ends...
The United States will still be dependent on them for the majority of its energy needs.
It's like a drug dealer whose supply line for one drug has been cut. If he can't supply his junkies with heroin... the dealer will find another way for the junkie to get high.
After all, you wouldn't want to lose a customer. Especially when that customer has been worth over $1.3 trillion.
The Global Energy Landscape is
on the Verge of a Historic Change
AI
