Position paper of the Magma Green organization, about the fight against the oil shale experiment
Served as a public service
The Adolim region, an area that stretches from the Elah Valley to Nahal Govrin, is one of the most beautiful open areas in Israel. The area is characterized not only by its impressive beauty, which attracts thousands of travelers and tourists throughout the year, but also by its ecological importance, which includes a huge variety of species, historical and cultural centrality since the days of the Bible, a significant contribution to the economy and agriculture in the country.
Despite all this, the area is under real danger: an experiment to extract oil from oil shale, which is in the bowels of the earth, is planned to take place there. Oil shale are thick layers of rock that contain a high concentration of organic matter. A substance similar to oil can be extracted from the oil shale. The oil extraction process requires heating the ground to temperatures of 400 degrees for two years (!!) in order to melt the solid rock and turn it into a liquid energy source. This could cause irreversible damage to the area and severe damage to both the health of the residents and the mountain aquifer, one of the main water sources in the country.
This method of extracting oil from oil shale will be done in situ, that is, on the site itself without excavating the ground. The proposed technology is very controversial and is still questioned by many scientists and geologists, so this is actually a pure "experiment".
Disturbingly, the oil law makes no reference to the process of extracting oil from oil shale or sources of this type at all.
Experiment
In 2008, the IEI company received a license from the Ministry of Energy and Water to operate a pioneer project that will test this technology of oil production in the Adulam region with the intention of moving to a large-scale commercial production process in the future.
Experiments with this technology have already been conducted in the United States, but they were stopped due to lack of economic viability, residents' concerns and environmental damage. In addition, oil production with this technology has not yet been implemented in the world and is not used for commercial production of oil anywhere in the world. Do we want to be used as a laboratory rabbit for a company with private interests? Are we the Americans' backyard?
The purpose of the experiment (the pioneer project) is to examine economic viability only (for society), and it ignores the expected damages to the economy, public health and the environment. In our estimation, all of these exceed the private company's forecasts for benefit.
Oil Law
The Ministry of Energy and Water is promoting the oil shale project by virtue of the Petroleum Law. However, the existing oil law in Israel does not have a clear set of criteria, balances and brakes for the process of producing oil from oil shale, and there is no reference in the regulations to experiments with new technologies for producing energy near settlements. Therefore, we believe that the oil law is not relevant to oil shale matters. By virtue of this, Article 47 should not be applied, according to which it is possible to bypass the Planning and Construction Law and speed up processes for approval of oil shale exploration.
Most importantly, the decision-making process on the experiment was made by the Ministry of Energy and Water in a lack of transparency and without giving the public the opportunity to express its opinion, knowing that there had never been a comprehensive examination by an external professional body of the consequences of the experiment on the general public.
Environmental, social and economic damage:
1. The underground heating process required to extract oil using this method may lead to seepage of metals, salts and remnants of organic compounds into the mountain aquifer, the main source of water in the country, and there is a substantial fear that the groundwater there will irreversibly become unfit for drinking.
2. In the oil production process, greenhouse gases and other toxic gases are emitted which are known to be carcinogenic. In addition to the polluting emissions, it is not clear how the toxic waste and effluents that will be generated during the oil production will be handled and now there are no control mechanisms for damage to public health as a result of the experiment.
Requirements from the Ministry of Energy and Water:
1. An in-depth and comprehensive examination by an external and objective professional body of the long-term economic, health and environmental consequences of the project and a clear determination of standards for the execution, supervision and handling of risks must be carried out.
2. An independent inter-ministerial committee should be established in which representatives from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Energy and Water will take part and examine the approval of the experiment/production and their control.
The effect of the technology in terms of health, environment and its effect on the country's economy must be examined (damage to soil properties, biological diversity, the risk of groundwater contamination, etc.).
3. Article 47, which allows the matter to be excluded and the planning system to be bypassed, should be abolished. In such an issue, which carries many dangers, one should not take things lightly and speed up processes. We demand transparency to the public about the decision-making process of the Ministry of Energy and Water in implementing experiments of this type and presenting a detailed plan of the project to the public.
4. If an experiment takes place, we demand that criteria be established to define success in the experiment, while of course referring to health and environmental aspects in addition to economic viability. Control mechanisms must also be established to protect the area and its residents from damage.
additional requirements:
5. An amendment to the petroleum law must be quickly promoted, which will also address the risks and the health and environmental aspects of energy production from depletable sources.
The Green Movement organization says that environmental, social and economic damage: the process of heating the underground required to extract oil with this method may lead to seepage of metals, salts and remnants of organic compounds into the mountain aquifer, the main source of water in the country, and there is a substantial fear that the groundwater there will become unfit for drinking irreversibly. In the oil production process, greenhouse gases and other toxic gases known as carcinogens are emitted. In addition to the polluting emissions, it is not clear how the toxic waste and effluents that will be generated during the oil production will be treated and now there are no control mechanisms for damage to public health as a result of the experiment.
During the event, which took place as mentioned on October 4, 2012, Mor Gilboa, CEO of Green Trend, said: "About 400 people came to stop the experiment of heating the soil to 400 degrees. The IEI company and the Ministry of Energy are trying to make a quick buck on the backs of all of us, they are not interested in the expected health, environmental and social damages that will be caused as a result of heating the ground to 400 degrees for two years. All this while it is not clear what the justification for this dangerous experiment is in light of the huge gas discoveries found in the Mediterranean Sea. Instead of exporting the gas, the technology of extracting oil from oil shale should be exported to another place."
9 תגובות
Read the previous articles. Click on the oil shale tag. The company's position appears in them in an orderly manner.
https://www.hayadan.org.il/hot-land-in-adulam-290312/
And besides, what will they answer? After all, the Greens were forced to agree to their demand for an experiment while asking for risk minimization. At most they will be happy.
I also wrote a professor's opinion against the export of gas, and I did not ask for a response from the gas companies. A casual response from a publicist who receives money to out his client as a clean company will not add anything to the reader.
But if you want and know someone there, send a comment, I will post it.
It's a shame that a website like the scientist publishes a position paper which of course presents only the position of one side and does not bother to get a response from the other side - a response from the government ministries? IEI company? Yuk!
It's simply disgraceful journalistic work that raises suspicion of work in the eyes.
Do not understand; If the whole thing was stopped in the United States due to lack of economic viability, then why insist on it in Israel? Just because someone decided they wanted to?
How is this supposed to happen if it hasn't happened for the past millions of years (spontaneous burning of the oil shale). And how exactly will man exist without preserving nature, or is your entire response cynical and I didn't understand.
Dangerous to human progress!!!
All this nonsense about harming the environment is an invention of dangerous entities that try to prevent us from human progress and invented nonsense like "global warming" (and I tell you it's not really hotter) and "preserving nature".
Leaving the oil shale in place could cause a very serious disaster when it burns out from the global warming they invented and then the whole area will burn and the smoke could suffocate everyone as far as Nahariya and Eilat.
On the one hand, the Greens' concern about difficult results is true
When there is environmental damage such as groundwater, the chances of repair are small
and requires enormous resources, a kind of cry for generations, it seems that the experiment is not the real concern for them
These are the fear that the experiment will be successful and then the big money will enter the picture like a predatory train that cannot be stopped,
Even at the cost of environmental damage, so there is always a desire to stop it when it is small
When the feasibility requires a lot of resources and is not profitable,
but
Regarding the requirement for an independent committee, when it comes to the greens, it is a waste of money and time
As soon as the greens decide that something is not good, no result will be the same in their opinion
you will not satisfy them,
Because with the Greens, if there is doubt, then there is no doubt, and there is always doubt in every human signature on the ground,
And in a scientific examination of the environmental variables there will always be doubt that this is not a binary 1
It's more of a statistical analog \ probability of damage,
The likelihood that remains is the large multivariate hindrance, not all of which are included in the models of those committees
If we know with full knowledge what is happening under the ground then every drilling for oil/gas would be bingo.
דני
There is no possibility of burning underground because there is no oxygen there.
Heating the oil shale to temperatures of 400 degrees can cause the whole process to get out of control.
And the ground will begin to burn deep, and spread in space, like a wildfire that gets out of control.