Set America Free Notes&Comments

Next week, the California Air Resources Board, or CARB — the same agency that only five years ago gained notoriety for its role in “killing” the electric car — could be in a position to deliver another crippling blow to the United States’ effort to achieve energy independence. Here is Gal Luft’s take on this.

In light of President Obama’s shameful bow before one of the world’s most corrupt and dictatorial leaders, Set America Free’s Gal Luft was asked by Foreign Policy Magazine to toy with the idea of a world without Saudi Arabia.
Here are some of his thoughts.

Abu Dhabi will buy a big piece of Daimler as the German carmaker announced that it will do a special issue of shares and sell them to the oil-rich Emirate’s Aabar investment arm for $2.6 billion. On conclusion of the deal, Aabar will hold about 9.1% of Daimler.
“Daimler is an iconic brand and a financially strong company with a reputation for excellence worldwide” said Khadem Al Qubaisi, Aabar’s chairman, in the announcement. “We believe that our future cooperation will be beneficial for Aabar and create social and economic benefits for Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates.” Abu Dhabi is not the only Middle Eastern nation to own some of Daimler: Kuwait has held a piece since 1974 that, following the latest issue, will total 6.9%.

Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich endorsed in a Newsweek article the introduction of an Open Fuel Standard:
“We should also pass an open-fuel standard for 95 percent of the new cars sold in the United States, allowing the construction of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that can run on a variety of fuels, including ethanol.”

Environmentalists may be horrfied by the appearance of the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, but as Gal Luft claims: “Micro-cars can be engines of prosperity in more ways then one. But only if they offer the world’s poor more than the false hope of indefinite cheap gasoline.”