Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz says the ministry will bar the import of cars that run on gasoline and diesel fuel by the year 2030, Jewish Press reports.
Speaking Tuesday (Feb. 27) at an energy conference in Tel Aviv, Steinitz said Israel plans to base the transportation and energy industry on natural gas and/or electricity within the next 12 years.
By 2030, the ministry is aiming for production of electricity using a mix of 83 percent natural gas and 17 percent renewable energy “with zero pollutants,” he said.
Already by the end of 2018, Steinitz said electricity production is to be reached with 71 percent natural gas, about 25 percent coal and 2 to 4 percent renewable energy. By 2030, coal will only be used for emergencies and back up purposes, he said.
Steinitz added that the natural gas deal signed this month between the Leviathan gas field consortium of Israel’s Delek Drilling and Noble Energy of Texas, and Egypt’s Delphinus (Dophinus) Holding, as well as the earlier natural gas export deal signed in September 2016 with Jordan, together have worked to strengthen the “peace axis” in the region – a geopolitical success he said was made possible because of the natural gas from the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields.