Report: Saudi prince worried over increasing fuel economy standards and technology

This may sound surprising, but Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has gone on record saying he wants the price of oil to decrease. Why's that you ask? It's all about the long-term game, says the Saudi Royal Family's stock market and real estate magnate. In a recent interview with "CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS," Al Waleed admits:

We don't want the West to go and find alternatives, because, clearly, the higher the price of oil goes, the more they have incentives to go and find alternatives.

Talal goes on to say that he thinks the price of oil should be closer to $70 to $80 a barrel instead of the current $100/barrel rate. With such high oil and gasoline prices, Talal fears that new technologies are being pushed ever harder to squeeze more and more miles out of each gallon of gas. Further, Talal worries that U.S. efforts to increase its Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to 35.5 mpg by 2016 and anywhere from 47 to 62 mpg by 2025 (along with automakers' burgeoning EV strategies) could eventually lead to reduced or eliminated dependence on Saudi oil.

Saudi prince worried over increasing fuel economy standards and technology originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/06/03/saudi-prince-worried-over-increasing-fuel-economy-standards-and/

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