Shale gas takes us down a dangerous path – Tunisians are battling shale gas proponents who say it is less carbon-intensive and ‘green’

With Tunisians protesting Shell’s shale gas plans and Jordanians set to finalise a deal to build the region’s first oil shale plant by the end of the year, it seems that the region is buying into shale. In Tunisia, shale gas is being marketed as low carbon and more environmentally-friendly but the latest research by scientist shows that it is far from that. Examining emissions in the US after the country began burning less coal due to shale gas production, researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, found that overall emissions had actually gone up. Why? Well, because millions of tonnes of unused coal are being exported to the UK, Europe and Asia.

“Research papers and newspaper column inches have focussed on the relative emissions from coal and gas, “explains Dr John Broderick, lead author on the report from the Tyndall Centre. “However, it is the total quantity of CO2 from the energy system that matters to the climate. Despite lower-carbon rhetoric, shale gas is still a carbon intensive energy source.” US CO2 emissions from domestic energy have declined by 8.6% since a peak in 2005, but researchers warn that more than half of the recent emissions reductions in the energy sector may be displaced overseas by the trade in coal.

Professor Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre notes: “Earlier Tyndall analysis suggests that the role for gas in a low carbon transition is extremely limited, with shale gas potentially diverting substantial funds away from genuinely low and zero carbon alternatives.” So there you have it. Shale gas isn’t the answer to all our prayer – it’s more like a huge distraction from renewables and consequently needs to be ignored.

Jordan’s Oil Shale Plans

Speaking at a news conference, the Jordanian Minister of Finance Suleiman Hafez said the shale deal with an estonian-Malaysian firm Enerfit “will be one of the biggest steps towards the country’s energy independence.” Indeed the project is the first step in a wider programme set to exploit Jordan’s estimated 40-billion-tonne oil shale reserves. Other projects include an initiative to extract 15,000 barrels per day in Karak and the construction of a second, 900MW plant. Enerfit hopes to eventually produce up to 38,000 barrels of shale oil per day. via Jordan Times

For more on shale gas and oil shale in MENA see:

Angry Tunisians Protest Shell’s Shale Plans

Jordan Plunges Itself Into Oil Shale Hell

Greenwash Alert: Shell to fund Environmental Education in Jordan

Image of shale gas road sign via Shutterstock.com

The post Shale Gas and The Ugly Truth: It is NOT Green(er) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Sadly, even though oil shale is nasty business that contaminates water and land around extraction sites and releases sulfur dioxide, lead and nitrogen oxides into the air, according to the US National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and scientists have warned that failure to slow global warming now will tip the planet’s climate balance, we’ve seen very little objection to the Kingdom’s goal of burning up its estimated reserves of 40 billion tons.

A pot of oil shale deals

Compared to Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production, Jordan’s oil shale ambitions are silly: whereas Saudi produced 9.2 million barrels per day in 2008, GOSH will produce 50,000 barrels of oil shale over the next decade from a site in Al Attarat, with 8,000 of that set to be extracted and burned within the next two years.

Yet the Ministry has cooked up a hole pot of oil shale deals, according to the Jordan Times, which should be of serious concern not only to Jordanians, but all of us who worry about climate change.

An Estonian/Malaysian consortium is working on a 460MW oil shale plant south of Amman that could be online as soon as 2016. Another project there is expected to push out as much as 35,000 tons of oil shale per day.

Shell is working on “experimental technology” in the eastern desert, probably the same technology Israeli activists have fought for the last two years, which will produce 40,000 barrels.

And finally, a joint British and Jordanian group are also cheerfully preparing to produce 15,000 barrels of oil a day at a site near Karak.

Greenhouse gas emissions and global warming

Many news organizations have reported that oil shale technology has been proven, but governments in the western United States, which is sitting on one of the world’s largest reserves of oil shale, have delayed extraction for decades since company’s have failed to provide proven safeguards.

Not only does oil shale threaten to contaminate the immediate environment, but the NRDC reports that greenhouse gas emissions from oil shale are almost double that from conventional crude oil.

The Worldwatch Institute sited a Rand Corporation report which shows that an oil shale production level of 100,000 barrels a day will emit 10 million tons of GHGs into the atmosphere, seriously imperiling our already-hot planet.

And yet, near-silence on the Jordan front. Silence.

Image credit: German open pit mine, Shutterstock (for illustrative purposes only)

The post Jordan Plunges Itself into a Giant Pit of Oil Shale Hell appeared first on Green Prophet.

Exploring the grid

US Ambassador to Amman, Stewart E. Jones, USTDA Regional Director Carl Kress and Ahmed Hiyasat, Commissioner of Jordan’s Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC), signed an agreement in Amman last Thursday that will result in a one-year study of the kingdom’s national grid.

Smart grids use digital technology that allow power producers to better understand load requirements, and the behavior of both producers and consumers of energy. Instead of guessing how much energy to send to a certain power point at different parts of the day, smart grids “know” exactly how much energy is required, thereby improving the efficiency and sustainability of electricity services.

There are three main electricity distributors in Jordan, namely the Electricity Distribution Corporation, Irbid Electric Power Company and the Jordanian Electric Power Company. Until now, 98% of the kingdom’s energy supply has been imported, a system that has been particularly troublesome since the onset of the revolution in Egypt that has disrupted natural gas supply.

New Energy Era

Combining smart grids, which will require an overdue overhaul of Jordan’s dinosaur grid, with smart meters that more accurately calculate how much energy each household or industrial plant uses, will slash energy waste and enable a more effective tariff system that rewards users who conserve.

“Establishing a smart-grid is not an option but a must for Jordan in order to improve services and move the country towards the future,” Mr. Hiyasat told The Jordan Times. 

The USTDA grant will fund 90% of the feasibility studies, which are necessary to determine how to equip the national grid so that it can handle the intermittency of renewable energy generation alongside more stable supplies.

With Greenpeace Jordan at the helm, local activists have been very outspoken against nuclear energy, but significantly less so about energy derived from the exploitation of oil shale, an unproven technology that is cause for great concern among environmentalists in the United States, Israel, South Africa, and elsewhere.

:: The Jordan Times

Image credit: Electricity technician, Shutterstock

More on Energy Generation in Jordan:

Understanding Jordan’s Nuclear Ambitions

Jordan’s First Nuclear Reactor: No-Go Without Parliamentary Pre-Approval

Jordan Announces Oil-Shale Plans Without Opposition

The post Jordan’s Dinosaur Grid to Get a “Smart” Upgrade? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Valley of Elah residents, Greenpeace members and local NGOS in Israel organized a march today against the development of oil shale in Israel. Oil shale and its extraction remains a very controversial subject.

Israel has so much oil shale, located in regions like the Elah Valley where the story of David and Goliath took place, enough some say to make it energy independent. Israel’s oil, locked up in shale much like the Alberta tar sands, could shift the energy curve. Developers of oil shale in Israel (Rupert Murdoch is an investor along with Lord Jacob Rothschild) say that their methods to extract the shale – oil mixed in with sediments and rocks deep below the ground – will not harm the environment. Elah Valley residents do not believe such “experimental” techniques are in the interest of the community or long-term environmental survival of the region.

Tafline has written a lot about oil shale in Israel, and after an open letter to environmentalist David de Rothschild, convinced him to bring the topic up with his cousin, Lord Jacob Rothschild, an investor of oil shale exploration in Israel. Stakeholders are convinced that their new methods to drill into, then heat the oil shale up underground to siphon off the oil will not harm the outwards environment or the water table. The public, clearly, is not buying. 

Today activists (and their children) against the development marched 40 kilometers in protest, from the Valley of Elah all the way to the Israeli Knesset, its parliament house in Jerusalem. Organizations involved included Greenpeace, the SPNI, and Green Life and the Environment.

They called their march the illusion of oil shale.

Hila Krupsky from Greenpeace said: “It is not possible to experiment in such a dangerous and irresponsible way without going through the approval mechanisms of planning and construction, and without asking the opposition to the public which is a basic right in a democracy.”

Attorney Karen Halpern from the Israel Union of Environmental Defense said: “The oil shale project is a clear example of the relationship between money and power that endangers the environment and public health. The close cooperation in the Knesset, the Ministry of Infrastructure with the project developers is suspicious and disturbing.”

Knesset Member Nitzan Horiwitz, who is a past media man, and environmentalist trained at the Heschel Center said: “This project is on the verge of surreal health and environmental impacts, which may be most difficult and irreversible. Its economic efficiency is not proven anywhere in the world…”

The post Oil Shale Marchers Walk 40 k from the Valley to Jerusalem appeared first on Green Prophet.

While Israeli activists fight oil shale exploration, Jordan announces plans to explore oil shale next door. 

While activists continue to fight against oil shale testing in Israel because of its potentially harmful environmental and social impacts, on the other side of the Dead Sea, Jordan has just announced its intention to explore oil-shale without any opposition from within its borders.

The Hashemite Kingdom sits on the third largest reserve of oil shale deposits, but the technology necessary to extract this fossil fuel safely is still undergoing rigorous testing in the United States and remains deeply controversial among environmentalists. Perhaps spurred on by chronic energy shortages, Jordan intends to go where no one else has been.

Jordan’s second biggest power plant relies on controversial oil shale

In a press release issued by his office, His Majesty King Abdullah announced his inauguration of the Qatraneh power plant last week. The 373 MW hybrid natural gas and oil plant is expected to increase electricity generation by 12 per cent.

“The JD420 million project near the town of Qatraneh, 100km south of Amman, is the second in the Kingdom in terms of capacity,” said Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Qutaiba Abu Qura during his remarks at the inauguration ceremony.

He added that “This project is an important component of the government’s strategy to meet the country’s growing energy demand.”

Like Israel, Jordan has long relied on imported energy to meet its growing demand, which has come under considerable strain since the natural gas supplied by Egypt has been disrupted since last year’s revolution. In order to meet this need, the Government of Jordan (GOJ) has considered a variety of energy alternatives, including nuclear power that has met massive resistance from local activists.

Where are the local activists?

But oil shale appears to have received less attention. 60% of Jordan is underlain by surface and near-surface oil shale deposits – enough to produce the equivalent of 50 billion barrels of oil, according to early ministry exploration reports.

Abu Qura said Jordan has attracted a number of international companies with experience in the field of oil shale technology to extract oil from the vast shale deposits in the south and produce electricity including the so-called Shell technology.

What will Jordan look like if these “international companies” succeed in tapping into 60% of Jordan’s land in order to extract a fossil fuel that will release even more harmful carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere?

Not only that, for the last three decades Shell has been researching and developing in-situ technology that heats the oil shale while it is still in the ground (instead of cracking open the rock to release it.) This is thought to be a more environmentally-sensible procedure than “retorting,” which the GOJ considered for some time, but the Colorado government is not sufficiently satisfied with testing and widespread commercialization of the technology has yet to be authorized in the United States.

Shell in Israel, Shell in Jordan

Possibly frustrated with America’s bureaucracy, the former Shell scientist Harold Vinegar moved to Israel and joined Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) – the company that received a license to test Vinegar’s in-situ technology in the Elah Valley. But nobody counted on the locals to blow up the secrecy surrounding oil shale in Israel, or on Save Adullam to launch a well-executed anti oil-shale campaign.

Abu Qara says nothing of a relationship with Vinegar, whose technology will be exploited in Jordan.

Early days

If local activists do not resist oil shale development in Jordan, then Shell will be one step closer to advancing widespread commercialization of oil shale extraction. Like the tar sands in Canada, this would be the death knell for earth’s climate.

By 2020, Jordan plans to satisfy 10% of the country’s total energy demand using renewable sources. For a country as vulnerable to climate change as Jordan, and with as much sunshine as it has, this pledge seems insufficiently ambitious.

The earth receives enough sunshine in one hour to power the planet for a year. Given the dire urgency of escalating greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, and the high quantity of water and energy required to exploit oil shale, Jordan would be so much better off steering its political will towards cleaner and renewable energy sources.

:: King Abdullah II Official Website

image via Cochise College

Update March 6:

We originally reported that the recently opened Qatraneh Power Plant south of Amman is a combined gas and oil-shale plant, an erroneous assertion deduced from an unclear press release issued by King Abdullah II’s office. A reader tells us this is a hybrid diesel/natural gas plant and that the country’s oil shale investigations are a separate matter. 

More on Oil Shale:
NGO Takes IEI/Genie’s Oil Shale Plan to High Court
Israeli Citizen Group to Fight Oil Shale Plans
Shell’s Mega Oil Shale Deal With Jordan

The post Jordan Announces Oil Shale Plans Without Opposition appeared first on Green Prophet.

A Jordanian oil shale company owned by Shell is funding university courses on the environment

As a global oil and gas company, Shell has a murky history not just environmentally but politically. Yesterday we commemorated the death of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was murdered for his campaigns against oil companies – and particularly Shell – in Nigeria back in 1995. Now, it has emerged that the oil company is funding university courses on water, energy and the environment in Jordan. What’s more, the funding is through the Jordan Oil Shale Company- a subsidiary of Shell that is currently exploring oil shale.

In the last couple of years Shell has drilled more than 100 oil wells in Jordan and signed an agreement aimed at exploring and potentially producing oil from Jordan’s vast oil shale resources. Although Jordan is relatively resource-poor it is believed to have around 40 billion metric tonnes of oil shale.

Oil Shale Is Environmentally Damaging

Oil shale is a controversial form of oil that is difficult to extract and often involves heating the oil out of reservoirs. It is expensive, energy intensive and damaging to the environment- it has also been linked to water pollution and water shortages.

With this in mind, it is quite hypocritical for an oil shale company to be funding courses on environmental issues and water. Personally, I am a strong believer in leading by example and it’s hard to imagine a Shell oil shale company setting a green example for anyone to follow.

Sustainable Development + Oil Shale= Greenwash?

According to various news reports, the Jordan Oil Shale Company (JOSCo) will be funding around 12 graduation projects at various Jordanian universities at the cost of JD 60,000. The projects will explore vital sectors like energy, water and environment. JOSCo’s general manager Thomas Meijssen told AmmonNews: “We believe in sustainable development principles and we hope that our contribution will help nurture local capabilities in the shale oil industry and other key industries in Jordan.”

Clearly, Shell and JOSCo see no clash between sustainable development and developing the oil shale industry. Or if they do, they think throwing money at the problem will make it go away.

:: Image via Atli Haroarson/flickr.

For more on oil shale and greenwash see:

Israeli Oil Shale Is Still A Possibility

How Do You Stop Greenwashing? Train Better Activist, Of Course

Should Green Corporations Accept Funding From Big Bad Orgaisations?

The post Greenwash Alert: Shell To Fund Environmental Education In Jordan appeared first on Green Prophet.

Scientist Harold Vinegar says there is a huge quantity of oil shale in Israel and, despite protests and risks, he still wants to extract it

A project to explore the Elah Valley of Israel (pictured above) for oil shale has been underway since 2008 and despite protests from locals and environmental campaigners, those behind the project state that they are optimistic and will continue to work towards extracting the oil shale.

In an extensive interview with the Jerusalem Post, ex-Shell scientist Harold Vinegar who is part of the Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) behind the oil shale venture, insists that Israel has the potential to extract “250 billion barrels of oil and perhaps more” using cleaner and cheaper techniques.

Cleaner and Cheaper Method of Oil Shale Extraction?

Harold Vinegar, 63, who was chief scientist at Royal Dutch Shell until 2008 explains that he has helped develop a cleaner method of extracting oil shale that is less polluting. This method consists of extracting the oil shale using heat rather than huge quantities of water and chemical which is involved in ‘fracking’. The company hopes to start a pilot by the end of the year to demonstrate that Vinegar’s heating method works and has ‘no negative effects on the environment’. The article adds that the ‘process is not supposed to release any poisonous gases, and the oil produced will be very easy to refine.’

Unknown Risks and Environmental Protests

Local residents, however, insists that the IEI’s technology is unproven and involves various environmental risks- some known and others unknown. Rachel Jacobson who is fighting the oil shale project spoke to Green Prophet back in April and said, “It’s hard to narrow down our list of concerns, there are so many unknowns! Among our largest is that this technique has never been implemented on the industrial scale being proposed here.

“Israel is an extremely small country, with a very small margin of error. In the United States, a site like the one being proposed here would have to be located about 50 km from the nearest town, while here, the nearest residential area is barely two kilometers away. Additional concerns for the immediate area include the potential risk of increased local air and ground (soil) pollution, increased noise and oil factory pollution, and other potential hazards.”

Threat to Shared Water Supplies

Concerns have also been raised over the fact that the site is near an underground water aquifer which is shared between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank. Although the company has insisted that the risk of contamination is small, Mihkel Harm from the World Energy Council told the BBC that the process being proposing to extract the oil shale “is hard to control and might pose a risk for groundwater.”

Vinegar however insists that the issue and its dangers have been “blown up out of all proportion.” He also added that he remains very optimistic about the project and was sure that the pilot would succeed: “One of our jobs is to demonstrate that this venture caries no dangers, and we will do that in the pilot.”

:: Jerusalem Post.

:: Image via Save Adullum Facebook page.

For more on oil shale exploration in Israel see:

Israelis Fight Oil Shale

Israeli Black Globe Awards Went to IEI For Oil Shale Agenda

Oil & Wine Don’t Mix: Over 1,000 Israelis Protest Oil Shale In Adulum

Open Letter To David de Rothschild: Stop Your Family’s Oil Shale Exploration

The post Ex-Shell Scientist Insists Israeli Oil Shale Is Still A Possibility appeared first on Green Prophet.

A senior economist at HSBC claimed in a recent report that the world’s oil resources are only expected to last five more decades, according to the New York Times. An earlier report from Wikileaks that Saudi Arabia’s peak oil is expected to happen much sooner than thought and desperate measures by mega oil companies corroborate this notion. In the meantime, we can expect a series of “persistent and painful” price hikes in the coming decades.“We’re confident that there are around 50 years of oil left,” Karen Ward, the British bank’s senior global economist, said in an interview on CNBC.

Rising population, particularly in China, are putting huge stresses on oil production. By 2050, HSBC estimates that an additional one billion vehicles on the roads will eat up oil reserves.

Substitutes such as bio-fuels and (heaven forbid) synthetic oils derived from coals might be able to alleviate strain, but will only become viable once oil prices top $150 a barrel.

HSBC believes that the last few decades of oil will have a tremendous impact on economic power, and that power will shift to more oil-wealthy nations. Europe, for example, is not expected to fare well.

Meanwhile, as supplies dwindle, the oil industry is pressing forward with increasingly ruinous projects such as the Canadian tar sands, arctic drilling, dangerous off-shore projects the likes of which led to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster last year, and oil shale drilling.

Referencing the end of oil and our ability to bounce back with renewables, Richard Heinberg from the Post Carbon Institute said at a recent speech to Worcester Polytechnic Institute graduates, “in my darker moments I fear that we have already waited too long and that it is already too late.”

He also said, and we agree, that he hopes that is not the case.

:: New York Times

More on oil in the Middle East:

Interview with American Oil Shale Expert Jeremy Boak

Saudi Arabia to Replace Oil with Sun Power

How Saudi Arabia Plans to Win the Food War

image via XcBiker

The post Oil Will Be A Past Relic When Today’s Babies Hit Fifty appeared first on Green Prophet.

Last year a small group of people accidentally discovered that Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), backed by Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney and a powerful American oil conglomerate, intended to explore their land for oil shale – potentially a very destructive project. David de Rothschild (of Plastiki fame) responded to our plea to discourage Lord Jacob Rothschild from financing the project, and IEI won the black globe award for their less-than-environmentally friendly intentions.

Following is an interview with Rachel Jacobson, one of a handful of people who has invested countless exasperating hours to fight what many perceive as an underhanded effort to deceive the Israeli public into believing that oil shale is a national interest. Learn more about the ordinary citizens who have taken on “Big Oil” and where their efforts have led.

Rachel, had the Moshav been informed that IEI planned to do testing there?

As far as we know, IEI approached the Moshav governing committee and requested to rent a small portion of land, about one kilometer from our neighborhood, for a period of a few months. We cannot confirm what the committee was told regarding the company’s purpose for renting the land, and there is no evidence whatsoever that committee members were informed of the company’s long-term plans for the Adullam area. We know for certain that we area residents were not told about the project. Here in Aderet, some of us individually approached the drilling site and asked the workers about the site’s purpose. They gave us a variety of contradictory responses.

How soon after that was The Citizens Coalition to Save Adullam formed?

Within a couple of weeks of discovering the drilling site behind Aderet, we learned that a similar drilling site was established outside a residential community not far from us. We arranged a “parlor meeting” which was attended by residents of Aderet and another local community. After hearing a lecture on the subject of in-situ oil shale retort given by a local geology student, we conducted an open discussion and began the process of organizing ourselves into a citizens’ action committee. Within a month we already had formed Save Adullam. By now our group has grown from a handful of local residents, to a core group of twelve, plus hundreds of local and national volunteers and supporters.

Can you briefly describe the process that you had to go through to gain access to the license that the Ministry of Infrastructure granted to IEI to explore 60,000 acres of oil shale?

The license was “announced” to the public in the state registrar -a list of documents located in some government building no one ever thinks to visit. The license was not published in any newspaper or other public forum. The government has no legal obligation to announce an initiative such as this one, either to the regional governing body, or to the citizens potentially put at risk by the project. More crucially, the license did not specify any details or restrictions regarding drilling techniques, protective environmental or health measures, or any other aspect of the project.

As for actually acquiring a copy of the license, repeated queries from local residents went unanswered. Only after the Israel Union for Environmental Defense threatened to take legal action, did the Ministry of Infrastructure provide them with a copy. When the license itself was granted one and a half years prior, in July 2008, no one had any idea about it. Even the Ministry of the Environment told us, “We know about this, but we can’t talk about it.”

The efforts we were forced to make, just to obtain supposedly public information, gave us only a hint of what was to come in terms of bringing the project into the public eye.

What are some of Save Adullam’s greatest concerns?

It’s hard to narrow down our list of concerns, there are so many unknowns! Among our largest is that this technique has never been implemented on the industrial scale being proposed here. Israel is an extremely small country, with a very small margin of error. In the United States, a site like the one being proposed here would have to be located about 50 km from the nearest town, while here, the nearest residential area is barely two kilometers away.

Additional concerns for the immediate area include the potential risk of increased local air and ground (soil) pollution, increased noise and olfactory pollution, and the potential hazards.

As for the larger picture, we find it extremely concerning that a foreign-owned energy company, backed by the likes of Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch – neither of whom has demonstrated an environmental sensitivity in the past– can reach Israel and be given carte blanche to develop an industrial fuel center in the heart of the country, all without impartial and transparent scientific oversight, governmental due process, or citizen involvement.

Can you tell us more about the artists, business owners, and farmers who live in the Adullam District, and what they stand to lose if, after two years of testing, IEI is permitted to proceed with commercial oil shale extraction?

The local and national governments have made concerted efforts to support regional business development. In the past five years alone, the Regional Council has poured millions of shekels into supporting the tourist economy, including internationally recognized wineries, artisans, bed-and-breakfasts, and a well-developed network of hiking and bicycle trails throughout the entire region.

We don’t need to wait for completion of the testing phase to know that this proposed project puts local business owners and farmers at risk of losing the livelihoods they’ve worked so hard to build over the years. The concept of a risky and experiment petrochemical site is completely at odds with the natural and open essence of the region and its residents.

What is Save Adullam’s central message? Are the people of the Elah Valley completely opposed to testing, as well as widespread commercial exploration?

While there is no way to approach and survey each and every resident of the area, our experience over the past year and a half clearly shows that a vast majority of those residents who understand the issues in question, oppose both testing and commercial exploration. We are acutely aware that the main purpose of any “testing” phase is to pave the way for a much broader and impactful scenario. I believe most residents also understand that any such initiative would have significant, negative implications for area residents.

Our message is simple: We demand an open, transparent and public process regulated by multiple government bodies, nonpartisan scientists and other professionals. No more decisions made behind the closed doors of a single government office, whether under the guise of protecting trade secrets, or under the auspices of outdated legislation.

The Adullam area is a valuable national — and international — public resource that the State of Israel cannot afford to destroy. We demand total protection of the citizens of Israel, and total accountability of the government, and of the company. The citizens of Israel will not be guinea pigs, risking our land, our resources, and the health and well-being of our citizens, to the whim of foreign investors.

Many of you have jobs and families and yet you’ve been working around the clock. Can you tell us more about the Save Adullam group and the kind of work you have been doing together?

You mentioned jobs and families… In fact, all of us have families, most with several young children, and all of us are career-driven and community-oriented. A few of us are even pursuing additional academic degrees right now! I think where grass-roots activism is involved, you see the same story: The busiest people are always the ones to take on yet another project. Sometimes it’s really tempting just to drop the whole thing, and not have to tell our families — yet again — that we can’t be home to put the kids to bed because we have another campaign meeting, event or press conference.

Personally, I hope my kids will forgive me, because I’m really doing this for them, to protect their health and their national heritage. After all, the company has millions of foreign dollars backing its efforts, whose employees wake up every morning and get paid a full salary to push this project forward, while we are just a bunch of citizen volunteers. We don’t earn a cent. Yet we fill nearly every free moment fighting because we know that’s what it will take to win this battle.

image of Rachel courtesy of E. Cohen; all others via Save Adullam

More on Oil Shale and Save Adullam

David de Rothschild Responds to Green Prophet’s Oil Shale Plea

The post Canadians Fight Tar Sands, Israelis Fight Oil Shale appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Elah Valley, which IEI hopes to use as testing grounds for oil shale extraction.

The annual Israeli “Green Globe” award ceremony, hosted by the environmental umbrella organization Life and Environment, took place last Thursday where recipients included Minister of the Environment Gilad Arden.  That award ceremony is not all pats-on-the-back and positive recognition, however.  It has a dark side, in the form of a Black Globe “awarded” to the most environmentally damaging entity over the past year.  Last year the Black Globe went to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his proposed ineffective environmental planning reform.

This year the Black Globe was bestowed upon Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) for activities detrimental to the environment.  The company’s proposed plan to test oil shale technologies in the Elah Valley would wreak serious environmental havoc on the region and IEI has been met with a great deal of protest.

Protesters are opposing:

• Increased greenhouse gas emissions
• On-site storage of hazardous materials
• Multiple boreholes
• Risk of other poluttants
• Irreversible alteration of the landscape for decades to come

Some of the protest was started right here at Green Prophet, when fellow writer Tafline Laylin posted an open letter to David de Rothschild whose family is involved in the project.  Tafline urged him to use whatever influence he could wield in order to stop the IEI project, writing that:

“We have followed your Plastiki Initiative with great interest, but now fear that your family’s involvement with the Adullam Oil Shale scheme recently announced by Globes will cancel out your good work, establishing a permanent blight on the Rothschild name… Your second cousin Lord Jacob Rothschild has been duped into believing that the project is environmentally sound… This could not be further from the truth.”

Surprisingly, David de Rothschild responded to Tafline very quickly and wrote that:

“I am part of a large family with many diverse opinions but I, as an individual actively discourage environmentally harmful activities.  However I have previously, and as is in this case, will continue to write to not only family members but also other individuals and businesses about how their actions influence the world environmentally in the hope that they will place a greater significance on this area and seek alternatives that can help us tread more lightly.”

Hopefully the active protests and the recent Black Globe award will encourage IEI to cease its proposed oil shale extraction experiments.

Read more about IEI and its oil shale project::
Oil & Wine Don’t Mix: Over 1,000 Israelis Protest Oil Shale in Adullam
Open Letter to David de Rothschild: Stop Your Family’s Oil Shale Exploration
David de Rothschild Responds to Green Prophet’s Oil-Shale Plea

Image via: Chadica

The post Israeli Black Globe Award Went to IEI for Oil Shale Agenda appeared first on Green Prophet.