Dr. Gal Luft, chairman of the Research Institute for Global Risk Analysis in Washington: "We need to reach a situation where every car can use a variety of types of fuel."

Luft said these things at the Prime Minister's Conference on Oil Substitutes that opened in Tel Aviv * At the conference, prizes in the amount of one million dollars were also awarded to two American researchers

The international conference on finding alternative fuels for transportation is being held at the Bima complex in Tel Aviv, in cooperation with the Keren Hayesod, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bloomberg.
The conference is attended by government officials, businesses and economists from all over the world to examine Israel's role as an innovation center in the field of fuel substitutes. Other global experts in the field of alternative fuels who are speaking at the conference: the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, the former US Secretary of Energy, the chairman of BYD and many others.

On the first day of the conference, a number of senior experts from Israel and the world who lead the field of fuel substitutes spoke.

Dr. Gal Luft, Chairman of the Research Institute for Global Risk Analysis in Washington - IGAS and a senior advisor to the US Energy: "The solutions for fuel substitutes should be economically viable regardless of the scope of imports. There is a need for competition between the various technologies as well as solutions that are conservative in terms of Physical ie, low government spending. In addition, there is a need to develop international standards for fuels. In the end, we need to reach a situation where every car can use a variety of types of fuel."

Luft also said: Natural gas is the key to many solutions in terms of fuel usage in light of the development of oil shale in the US and in light of the fact that China has the largest reserves of oil in the world.

Robert McFarlane "We must open the market to different types of fuels, otherwise we will have a global economic catastrophe with the increase in cartel fuel prices. The countries of the world should adopt regulations for flexible fueling vehicles. In a global world, all countries should be interconnected. We need to create more alternatives for fuel and let the market decide what the best solution is."

Prof. Eugene Kendall, head of the National Economic Council, Prime Minister's Office: "In the field of fuel substitutes, we need to focus on three issues: national security, economic stability and environmental protection. Of course, Israel cannot make the change alone, so a global effort is needed."

Eyal Rosner, Chairman and Director, Fuel Substitutes Directorate, Prime Minister's Office: "The problem is global, Israel is not the only one that has this problem. We have many solutions, some of which are already available in the technological aspect. We do not choose winning technologies but create the environment for the development of the various technologies. When you start the change, everything looks different and we need a quick change. In the short term there is a use for natural gas based solutions and in the long term cleaner solutions such as electric vehicles."
Chairman and CEO of the union Wesley Clark and co-chairman of the Growth Energy company said: "The development of the biofuels industry faces strong opposition from the world's largest economic engine - the oil industry. Even if Israel finds oil, it should continue to develop fuel substitutes. We have to remember that besides the geopolitical need there is the environmental need."

The conference is organized by the Oil Substitutes Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office, headed by Eyal Rosner, which was established in 2011 at the Prime Minister's initiative.
The national plan, which began in 2011, is designed to formulate solutions that will reduce global dependence on oil and oil-producing countries, which causes instability in the world's economies, and is budgeted at NIS 1.5 billion per decade. The goal of the program, in which 10 different government ministries are partners, is to turn Israel into a center of knowledge and industry in the field and in the process significantly increase the use of petroleum substitutes in transportation in Israel up to 60% in 2025.

The program operates in the areas of research support, investment funds in companies, assistance to conduct field experiments, regulatory support, promotion of entrepreneurship, and international collaborations
The Directorate of Fuel Substitutes in the Prime Minister's Office, in collaboration with the government ministries that are partners in the program, created and strengthened international relations and collaborations with Germany, France, the USA, China and Korea; It has held seven international conferences in Israel, supported scientific delegations and is currently holding the Prime Minister's Award Summit.
As part of the national program, a government investment program was launched in the amount of approximately 100 million dollars managed by the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy and the Oil Substitutes Directorate. In addition, the program supports three inter-university research centers and has increased the innovation community to 400 entrepreneurs. Today there are over 100 companies and 125 research groups in the field of oil substitutes.

A million dollar prize for global innovation in the field of oil substitutes was awarded today to two scientists. This is the world's largest prize in the field

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Science, Technology and Space Ya'akov Perry today awarded a million dollar prize to two scientists who brought about a significant breakthrough in the field of alternative energy for transportation. The award, on behalf of Eric and Sheila Samson, was awarded at a gala evening to Nobel laureate Prof. George Ola and Prof. Surya Parkash from the University of Southern California for the development of methanol technologies for use as fuel substitutes. This is the largest financial award in the world given in the field and will be awarded every year from now on.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Space Jacob Perry said at the event: "Oil is a powerful political tool like no other that is in the hands of our greatest enemies. The State of Israel must act to lower its strategic value and reduce the world's dependence on it. Some of the world's oil powers use oil as a basis for financing hostile terrorist acts against the West and especially against Israel."

In his words, Minister Perry referred to Israel's interest in challenging the Arab countries and emphasized the importance of this especially vis-à-vis the Iranian regime: "The development of oil substitutes will be an effective Israeli blow to the ambitions of the hostile countries and especially those of the Iranian regime. Under the recognition that global dependence on oil is a strategic threat, the Israeli government will continue to allocate resources to find oil substitutes that will be a catalyst for reducing dependence while making Israel a center of knowledge and action in the field of oil substitutes for transportation."

Prof. Ola and Prof. Parkash jointly developed the idea of ​​a "methanol economy", which has the potential to make a significant contribution to solving the transportation problem based on petroleum-based fuels, which are running out and whose prices are dictated by the oil monopoly.