Activists demonstrate against pollution, blow non-pollutive smoke toward facility.
By SHELLY PAZgreenpeace protest 298.8(photo credit: AP)
Dozens of Greenpeace activists demonstrated in front of the Rabin Lights power station near Hadera on Wednesday under the slogan, "Pollution is returned to the polluter."
The protesters used pipes to blow thick, gray but harmless smoke toward the facility, and later spoke with Hadera residents.
"The Electric Corporation refuses to even examine the solar energy option. Its management uses the citizens of Israel as marionettes when they threaten to stop the electricity flow in reaction to disputes with the government and has a plan to build a similar coal-based station in Ashkelon and three more on the Dead Sea," Theodora Karchovsky, Greenpeace Mediterranean's spokeswoman, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
"People should realize that coal and its emissions kill. And that there is a cheap, clean and Israeli alternative like the sun's energy. All around the world, countries are moving to fully exploit their natural sources to create electricity, like hydro in Norway or solar in Spain and Germany," Karchovsky said.
Rabin Lights is Israel's largest power station, located near Hadera on the shore of the Mediterranean. It's 2,590 megawatts represent 35 percent of the Israel Electric Corporation's total capacity, burning 18,000 tons of coal every 24 hours and using 320,000 tons of seawater per hour. It has its own dock for unloading coal.
The power station is often criticized; the main complaints relate to the pollution of the sea water when unloading coal from the ships. In addition, the sea water used for cooling the plant ends up in the Hadera River, harming wildlife, and the plant generates heavy air pollution, including massive quantities of coal dust.
