From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 17, 2025
Government officials said threatening Environment Ministry over Red Sea oil permit
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Representatives of 17 environmental and public health organizations claim that officials in the government are threatening the Environmental Protection Ministry that its authority to issue permits for toxic substances will be revoked, unless it approves an increase in oil imports to the southern port of Eilat on the Red Sea.
A letter to a string of ministry officials warns that a court petition will be submitted, should any decision be taken that is not solely based on the needs of the environment and public health.
In December, the government overturned a more than three-year-old Environmental Protection Ministry policy of restricting oil imports at the port of Eilat to reduce the risk of oil leaks that could destroy the resort city’s world-renowned coral reefs.
The move came after years of lobbying by the state-owned Europe Asia Pipeline Company against a decision by former environmental protection minister Tamar Zandberg, in 2021.
Infuriated by what she and ministry officials saw as the company’s inadequate environmental risk surveys, Zandberg limited oil imports to two million tons annually, dubbing the move a “zero additional risk” policy.
The decision, which the ministry was authorized to make, as the regulator in charge of permits for toxic material use, disrupted an EAPC deal signed in 2020 with Red-Med, a consortium of Israeli and UAE businesspeople. That deal would have seen Gulf oil brought to the EAPC’s Eilat terminal on the Red Sea and channeled overground via EAPC pipelines to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean. From there, the oil would be reloaded onto tankers bound for Europe.
Since Zandberg’s decision, the EAPC has regularly tried to get the cap removed.
