“Oil-Rich Nations Turning Attention To Alternative Fuels” read recent headlines across the country. The main, but hardly exclusive, focus was on the United Arab Emirates, the number four OPEC producer, and what it was doing to reduce demand for fossil fuels internally.
In a Manhattan Project-like strategy that puts a premium on applying the sun, the wind and hydrogen to domestic energy needs, the UAE hopes to save more high-value fossil fuels for export to markets such as the U.S.
The UAE also knows its oil won’t last forever. Yet it wants its luxurious, even sybaritic, lifestyle to survive in perpetuity. Hence its serious, prioritized approach to energy conservation at home.
Anyone else see an irony here?