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Friday, March 11, 2011

Imagine

Imagine a world where Israel was respected, a world where US Jews want to make Aliyah to Israel.

There’s a fascinating article by Dore Gold in today’s Jerusalem Post.

He states that Dr. Yuval Bartov, chief geologist for Israel Energy Initiatives, at the yearly symposium of the prestigious Colorado School of Mines claims that Israel has 250 billion barrels of oil reserved locked in oil shale. That, to top off the US Geological Survey estimates that there are 122 trillion cubic feet of gas in the whole Levant Basin, most of which is within Israel’s jurisdiction.

The study places Israel as the world’s third largest holder of oil shale reserves.

Dore Gold tells us that Israel is working on technology that will not only cleanly extract the oil from shale, but provide water while doing so.

Gold tells us that these technologies are being tested right now.

Dore Gold is not a man led to exaggeration. If he’s telling us this, then there is strong basis for it in fact. Updated studies this coming year will tell us more about the extent of these finds and technologies.

That's not to say that the idea doesn't have its Green detractors.

But aren't environmentalist always party poopers? They'd prefer to fly in their jets, while the rest of us give up our cars.

Anyway, back to the subject on hand..

When I read this, my first thought was that as a primary supplier of global oil for the next few decades, this would completely alter the way the world deals with Israel.

When I told this to my wife, her first response was that American Jews might actually decide to make Aliyah to a wealthy country like Israel.

Imagine…

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10 comments:

  1. Right on. The whole world loooooves Saudi.

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  2. ולאשר אמר ברוך מבנים אשר יהי רצוי אחיו וטבל בשמן רגלו

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  3. >Right on. The whole world loooooves Saudi.

    I'm sure Joe meant more like Nigeria, a paragon of respectability. Or Iran. Heck, maybe Israel could get on the Human Rights Council.

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  4. And for the rest of us, a translation (from Parshat V'Zot HaBrachah, Deuteronomy chapter 33):

    "24 And of Asher he said: Blessed be Asher above sons; let him be the favoured of his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil."

    Nice, Yaak. :)

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  5. i assure you that i'm not green, but here in pennsylvania hydro fracking (removing oil from shale) is having terrible consequences on the water quality. we could use dr. bartov here.

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  6. The whole issue of extracting oil from shale is an environmental nightmare. I find it disturbing that "green"-ness always seems to be the territory of smolanim and yefei nefesh while the patriotic right who so love the Land Of Israel are so quick to scar it and destroy it in the name of advancement.

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  7. Only Al Gore has a jet. The people who write the (very good) "Green Prophet" certainly don't. And they know their stuff. So why be mean?

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  8. If you read Gold's article, he explicitly states that they are testing techniques that don't have negative ecological side-effects.

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  9. That would be good. Because in Arkansas they've seen a direct correlation of earthquake incidence with the introduction of fracking there.

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