Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal would like to see oil prices drop to the $70-$80 a barrel range in a move to thwart western development in alternate fuels.
The prince is aiming to do this to prevent the U.S. and Europe to invest in alternative energy sources, his family member told media.
"We don't want the West to go and find alternatives," Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, said in interview with CNN.
http://hken.ibtimes.com/...
Needless to say, whatever your political leanings, their is something not the like here. For liberals Saudi money is helping put down the Arab Spring:
Hundreds of troops from Saudi Arabia and police officers from the nearby United Arab Emirates have entered Bahrain at the request of the ruling family, a move that further polarized the tiny island nation and marks the first time Arab nations have intervened in another country's affairs amid sweeping unrest in the region.
http://articles.latimes.com/...
And for Republicans:
In October 2001, following the World Trade Center attacks, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani turned down a $10 million donation from Al-Waleed for disaster relief after the prince suggested the United States "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack," and "re-examine its policies in the Middle East." Giuliani interpreted his statements as drawing "a moral equivalency between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism."
In 2002, Al-Waleed donated 18.5 million British pounds ($27 million) to the families of Palestinians during a TV telethon following Israeli operations in the West Bank city of Jenin. The telethon was ordered by Saudi King Fahd to help relatives of Palestinian martyrs. The Saudi government maintained the term "martyrs" referred not to suicide bombers but to "Palestinians [who are] victimized by Israeli terror and violence."
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
However, I have every confidence that our political leadership will see through his foibles and do everything possible to kill green energy as:
He is founder and CEO of Kingdom Holding Company. As of March 2011, his net worth is estimated at US$19.6 billion, according to Forbes, making him the 26th richest person in the world on their list published in March 2011. He has been nicknamed by Time magazine as the Arabian Warren Buffett.
And as we all know in America money trumps both ideology and national security. After all, our politicians are perfectly happy to count somebody as a friend is they see a person with two dollars and one becomes a campaign contributions and the other is used to buy bullets to kill our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah I know that's harsh but I'm just so F&*$ing tired of seeing things like the six year old girl on my son soccer team that was barely holding to together while her daddy was in Iraq.