Greenpeace activists break into natural gas facility
Invasion aims to raise public awareness of solar power; group says summer energy crisis imminent
Early Monday morning, six Greenpeace Israel activists broke into a Noble Energy natural gas facility near Ashdod in an effort to raise awareness of solar energy as an alternative to natural gas. Four of the activists were briefly arrested but later released, police said.
The action was “a direct call to the Israeli public and the Israeli government, which ignores the power crisis that is expected to take place this summer and does not exploit the resource of solar which generates clean and safe electricity,” the group said in a statement.
The group said that in order to avert a crisis, the government must provide some 300 megawatts of power from solar-driven sources. In the summer, energy use in Israel is far higher, mostly due to air conditioning during the long, humid days.
Despite the fact that the Greenpeace activists were dressed in bright yellow outfits and unfurled several banners, they were able to wander the Noble Energy compound for almost an hour before authorities intervened, Walla reported.