Israeli Supreme Court rejects petition against IEI Oil shale project

Wednesday, Dec 26, 2012

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.

Source: Business Wire

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