Saudi prince highlights alternative energy, warns Baker Institute audience against ‘energy independence’

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi ambassador to the United States, told an audience at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy that the kingdom is pursuing alternative sources of energy despite its leading role in global petroleum production.

	MICHAEL STRAVATO
	Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi ambassador to the United States, told an audience at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy that the kingdom is pursuing alternative sources of energy despite its leading role in global petroleum production.

“It may come as a surprise to some of you to hear that Saudi Arabia is now solidly on the path of meeting all of its energy needs via alternative energy sources,” Turki said at the Nov. 11 event, “not only so that it can export more oil, but also so that it can export the excess alternative energy.”

He noted Saudi Arabia’s increasing reliance on natural gas, as well as efforts to raise the profile of solar, wind and nuclear energy production. “Saudi Arabia fully realizes that a multiplicity of energy sources, both for domestic use and foreign export, are now its national ideal and its global standard,” he said. “No country can or should power itself from one form of energy.”

By the same token, Turki sought to discourage talk of energy independence. “Everywhere one turns these days, one hears the cries for energy independence — perhaps more strongly now than ever before,” he said. “While independence may be an ideal that drives change, interdependence is generally the destination toward which this change finds itself driving.”

He reminded the audience of Saudi Arabia’s powerful place in the world of oil, with enough capacity to replace the production of the No. 2 and 3 members of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries “in almost no time at all.” Saudi Arabia plans to remain in its leading position, Turki said. “No other country can claim anywhere near the quantity of proven — or unproven — oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. In short, as demand for oil continues to rise, especially in China and India, the kingdom has every intention of meeting that demand.”

He pointed to this summer’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as “a cautionary tale” that underscored the risks of consuming nations pursuing energy independence. “To literally go to the ends of the earth to retrieve oil is probably not the wisest long-term energy strategy, especially when a country like Saudi Arabia has so much oil that can be safely retrieved.”

Still, Saudi Arabia is “constantly reconceptualizing energy production policy,” he said. “For many years, Saudi Arabia has been a major supplier of energy to the world. Heretofore, that energy has been in the form of oil. But just as Toyota is in the business of selling cars and Apple is in the business of selling computers, Saudi Arabia is very much in the business of selling energy in whatever form it can generate.”

And as Toyota is branching out from petrol- to hybrid-powered vehicles and Apple is moving from desktop to hand-held computers, Saudi Arabia “wants to sell what people want — and what people want is changing,” he said.

In addition to his diplomatic career, Turki is one of the founders of the King Faisal Foundation and is chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. He is also co-chair of the C100 Group, which has been affiliated with the World Economic Forum since 2003.

“We all want a stable, secure energy market that provides us with the most power for the longest period, delivered and consumed in the most efficient way possible,” he told the Baker Institute audience.

To achieve that lofty goal, Turki recommended collaboration between energy producers and consumers rather than confrontation. ”The black and white of oil versus non-oil is not the complete story,” he said. ”All nations are intertwined in a struggle to create a unified energy mix.”

Turki’s address was part of the Baker Institute’s Shell Distinguished Lecture Series. View a webcast of the speech at http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&task=webcast&action=details&event=2354.