Israel Energy Initiatives, Ltd. (IEI), a subsidiary of Genie Energy Ltd.
(NYSE: GNE), said that it was pleased by a favorable ruling issued today
by the Supreme Court of Israel. The Court’s decision clears a major
legal roadblock and enables this nationally important project to move
forward to the permitting phase.
In its ruling today, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected a petition
filed by the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (the “Union”)
against various ministries of the State of Israel, IEI and another
Israeli oil and gas company, seeking to cancel the regulations governing
the permitting process of oil and gas exploration, and seeking to cancel
the exploration license granted to IEI. In October, the Court rejected a
previous petition filed by the Union challenging the issuance of
exploratory licenses, including IEI’s license, issued pursuant to those
regulations.
IEI said that it now looks forward to the issuance of regulations by the
Ministry of Energy that will enable it to prepare the environmental
documents needed to file its pilot test permit application with the
Jerusalem District Planning Committee.
About Israel Energy Initiatives:
Israel Energy Initiatives Ltd (IEI) is an Israeli company based in
Jerusalem. IEI is developing an environmentally acceptable approach to
produce clean transportation fuels from oil shale utilizing its in-situ
conversion technology. IEI holds an exclusive exploration license granted
by the Israeli Government pursuant to Israel’s Petroleum Law. The
license area is located in Israel’s Shfela basin, and is estimated to
contain over 40 billion barrels of oil equivalent. IEI has world
class oil shale scientific and management teams. For more information,
visit www.iei-energy.com.
About Genie Energy:
Genie Energy Ltd (NYSE: GNE) is a public company comprised of IDT
Energy and Genie Oil and Gas (GOGAS). IDT Energy is a leading
independent retail energy provider supplying electricity and natural gas
to residential and small business customers in the Northeastern United
States. GOGAS is pioneering technologies to produce clean and affordable
transportation fuels from the world's abundant oil shales and other
unconventional fuel resources. GOGAS resource development
projects include oil shale initiatives in Colorado and Israel. For
more information, visit www.genie.com.
