Gasoline in Israel is $8.50 Per Gallon!!
I filled up my tank the other day on my Volvo S40. Over 400 NIS. With the weakening dollar that is about $120! Gasoline here is now $8.50 per gallon (Interesting piece here at Greenweb) and is showing no signs of stopping.
With that as a backdrop, Prime Minister Olmert's decision to stop building the high speed rail link between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (link in Hebrew) is worse than bewildering. It is downright dangerous.
Given the neighborhood we live in, we should be doing everything possible to reduce oil dependency in Israel. With the high rate of car accidents, we should be getting as many people onto public transportation as possible. What is the Prime Minister thinking?
For more on the dangers of rising oil prices and out of the box thinking on what can be done in America to reduce dependence on oil, see the great T. Boone Pickens (wikipedia entry) video below. Israel is a small country, and we can make a bigger and faster impact on oil dependence than America can. We can put wind farms in the Golan and find alternative energy sources. As Pickens says "all it takes is the right leadership." Unfortunately, leadership in Israel is even in shorter supply than oil.
With that as a backdrop, Prime Minister Olmert's decision to stop building the high speed rail link between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (link in Hebrew) is worse than bewildering. It is downright dangerous.
Given the neighborhood we live in, we should be doing everything possible to reduce oil dependency in Israel. With the high rate of car accidents, we should be getting as many people onto public transportation as possible. What is the Prime Minister thinking?
For more on the dangers of rising oil prices and out of the box thinking on what can be done in America to reduce dependence on oil, see the great T. Boone Pickens (wikipedia entry) video below. Israel is a small country, and we can make a bigger and faster impact on oil dependence than America can. We can put wind farms in the Golan and find alternative energy sources. As Pickens says "all it takes is the right leadership." Unfortunately, leadership in Israel is even in shorter supply than oil.
posted by Michael Eisenberg at 10:19 AM
7 Comments:
ProjectBetterPlace by Shai Agassi is also a great way for us to fight against this dependency.
I also agree with you about the Jerusalem/Tel Aviv train. Don't understand how the Olmert Head is built ;-(
Guess how much is costs to fill up a Boeing 777/200? How we will all pay for flights to the states if we can barely stomach the cost to Ranana?
@Elliot: That's why, El Al will not provide flights to/from Miami anymore...
wind farms kill birds. Israel is a major flight path for migratory birds. More windfarms will mean more bird carcasses.
Would YOU give up your Volvo S40 for public transport?
Let's not consider a clean energy that reduces pollution because a few birds will die. What about how many people will die if we continue burning coal? Anonymous: where is your head at?
If you want to use wind and save birds, just put a giant net around the windmills...hopefully they wont slow down the wind.
anonymous -
i too cannot understand your bird comment but i can tell you that i will give up my Volvo if they put high speed railroads between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv/Herzliya. I love the train.
Along the lines of the Pickens Plan, there are actually a couple of really unique Israeli companies that are doing some great things with natural gas- one of them that I heard of is called Energtek (www.energtek.com) and they are now in the process of converting two and three-wheeled vehicles across SE Asia to run on clean and affordable NG.
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