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An Uncertain Future for Our National Parks? Not On Our Watch

Today, the nation will celebrate one of our country's crowning achievements, the centennial of the National Park Service, and a model of conservation and preservation now used all over the world.

For myself and some of my colleagues, that celebration will take place at the Roosevelt Arch at the North Gate of Yellowstone National Park, our nation's first national park. Inscribed across the arch that greets visitors to Yellowstone is a quote from the law that created the park, stating the purpose of protecting this remarkable landscape was "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People."

Those words are the guiding principle of our National Park Service's mission, to protect the natural, historical and cultural sites that together help tell the American story. But even as record-breaking crowds visit American icons like Yosemite, the Great Smokies, and Gettysburg, our parks and the agency entrusted with their care have never been more challenged.

Many of these challenges may not occur to the average visitor who see these places as pinnacles of natural grandeur and windows into our past.

When visitors walk the wooded trails of Shenandoah or the stone steps of the Lincoln Memorial, they may not notice that there are far fewer rangers than in years past, meaning fewer rangers to protect wildlife, maintain our trails, and teach us about our history.

When visitors climb the peaks of Rocky Mountain or walk the Freedom Trail in Boston, they may not realize that shuttered building or closed trail is actually just one part of our park system's $12 billion repair backlog, a backlog that the Congress normally gives just half of the money the Park Service needs to keep that number growing every year.

When visitors step into our nation's beginnings at Jamestown or take in the majestic mountains of the Grand Tetons, they don't realize that destructive development may soon occur just outside those parks' borders that, if allowed to move forward, would forever mar these treasured places.

And when visitors are quick to snap a picture of a distant Grizzly bear in Glacier or dive into the sparkling blue waters of Biscayne, they may not think of the repeated attempts by many in Congress to weaken or remove the protections our parks' wildlife, water, and other resources depend on.

These are just some of the challenges our national parks face as they head into their second century, but it is also not the first time parks have faced these challenges. The difference is that when we have faced these challenges in the past, those across the political spectrum came together to overcome them.

When visitor centers and other park facilities were at the verge of collapse in the 1950s, we came together to pursue Mission 66, a 10-year infrastructure effort to modernize the visitor experience. When we saw the threats our country's air, water, and wildlife face both in and outside our parks, we passed protections such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. And for more than a century, presidents of both parties have used tools such as the Antiquities Act to protect important pieces of our shared heritage like the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.

Faced with the challenges before us today, the decisions we make now will have profound effects on our parks for decades to come. Now cannot be the time we decide to turn our backs on our parks. Not on our watch.

We need a renewed commitment as a country to our parks, a commitment that goes beyond a supportive tweet and a selfie. It must be a Congress that will preserve those protections our parks rely on and gets our Park Service the resources and funding it needs to tackle parks' challenges.

It must be a president who understands the vital role of parks in our society, and is committed to working with members of all parties to support our parks and ensure more pieces of the American story are added to our Park System.

And it must be members of the public who will not only continue visiting national parks, but the day after they visit commit to helping that park by volunteering, writing a letter to the editor, or calling their member of Congress demanding we do more for our parks.

Our parks face many challenges, but overcoming challenges is part of the American story, a story told through our national parks. In this, their centennial year, let's recommend to ensuring a brighter future for America's favorite places. They deserve no less.

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Barack You Held My Grandson In Your Arms
"Barack you held my grandson in your arms and felt the comfort and warmth of the baby. Let us feel the same from your kind act and words. Remember you promised to help us all." ~~M. Jay Cook Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe

Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Cannonball South Dakota--August clouds are stacked in three-dimensional layers over the Great Plains. Gentle slopes west of the Missouri River are interrupted by low ridges, buttes and a stray boulder here and there --all gifts left by the glaciers eons ago. A few miles south of Bismarck on the road to Cannonball, local authorities have erected another kind of stone, one not indigenous to this sacred area. Concrete barricades, capable of stopping an ISIS attack, block direct access to reservation land and more importantly, the peaceful gathering of up to 2000 (at one time) Native Americans and supporters trying to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Sacred Stones Camp.

It seems that if you are a writer you can talk your way through. A polite warning was issued to be careful of "Indians all over the roads."

Within a few miles there were indeed people and flags; hundreds and hundred of flags representing Indian Nations from all over the continent. Pockets of people gathered along a fence with more flags, and prayers bundles were tied to the wire.

A man waved me over with great purpose in his demeanor. His name is M. Jay Cook of the Cheyenne River Sioux. A child was near, her name is Precious, and she is his granddaughter. Her mother died when she was 8 months old and Jay has been raising her ever since. He told me she "is the motivation of his life." Precious had been breast-feeding when her mother passed, and literally clung to her Grandfather for life itself.

Jay Cook and his Daughter Precious with a message for the Obama's

M. Jay Cook was eager to show me signs he had made. On two poster boards, there were photos of Michelle and Barack Obama, each holding his grandson, Wakiyan Topa, for a photo-op. In June of 2014 the President and his wife visited Standing Rock with promises of support and aid. 40 percent of the residents live in poverty and two-thirds are unemployed.

"My administration is determined to partner with tribes," Obama said in 2014. "It takes place every day on just about every issue that touches your lives."

In the space of two years, Standing Rock has gone from the promise of Presidential empathy to faded pictures of an Indian child used as a Presidential prop pasted to cardboard that threatened to rip in the stiff headwinds.

Make sure you write, "Lala (grandfather) Barack promised to help us, M. Jay said. "Kiksuye Wokiksuye (Remember we remember). "

"Barack you held my grandson in your arms and felt the comfort and warmth of the baby. Let us feel the same from your kind act and words. Remember you promised to help us all."

Barack, hear this man's words.

(DAPL) was literally foisted on tribal authorities shortly after activists led by Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth and others forced Enbridge to seemingly abandon plans for the Sandpiper Pipeline. Everyone's guard was down. Coincidence? Sandpiper would have run Bakken crude in and around treaty lands and wild rice beds in Minnesota, but the Canadian company wants to wring every spare drop of oil out of what is left of the Bakken boom. With the current price of crude seeking bottom on world markets, production is low, wells are shut down, and there are significantly fewer "bomb trains" plying the tracks of the heartland. The Dakota Access Pipeline would effectively replace the Keystone XL, which was shut down by the Obama administration. Was there a quid pro quo? Who knows, but there seems to be quite a few quids and pros littering the American political landscape these days.

"Mni Wiconi" is Dakota/Lakota for "water is life." Water is the ultimate gift for the Creator for Native People. The proposed DAPL would move 570,000 barrels of crude across four states and crisscross the Missouri River on its way to southern Illinois. Safe? In 2012-2013 there were 300 spills in North Dakota and none were reported to the public.

The DAPL would cross treaty lands and ancestral burial grounds. Within site of the reservation boundary, the proposed route crosses the Missouri River and threatens water supplies for the reservation and local farming and ranching operations.

In an impassioned op-ed for the New York Times, tribal Chairman David Archambault addresses treaties and many broken promises; calling out the Army Corps of Engineers for lack of coordination and communication. Given the recent failures of the Corps in Louisiana and epic mismanagement and subterfuge during the great flood of Katrina, it is about time the Corps is removed from its responsibilities.

Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014. Although federal law requires the Corps of Engineers to consult with the tribe about its sovereign interests, permits for the project were approved and construction began without meaningful consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation supported more protection of the tribe's cultural heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the company's assessment of the planned route through our treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe.

On that note, no decision was made yesterday in federal court regarding the fate of the DAPL. Judge James E. Boarsberg will make a decision by September 9, while considering the lack of consultation between Tribes and the Army Corps of Engineers. An appeal is already set for September 14 if the Tribes or Corps of Engineers is unhappy with the decision.

M. Jay Cook sent me a text this morning. He is still holding his signs and thinks he might have to drive up to Bismarck to get some laminate for the vulnerable poster board. His message was for Barack and Michelle Obama.

Wakiyan Today

"Hihanni wasteyelo--good morning. Watch the sun come over the horizon and be thankful for a new day lala-grandpa and unci-grandma."

Let's hope that the Obama's get the message and guarantee that their poster child, Wakiyan Topa, who offered them the warmth of his body and the purity of his soul, gets to live a long life blessed with the spirit of clean water and air.

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The Night I Discovered Aquafaba

On the way back from my volunteer trip to The Orkeewska School in Africa, someone had abandoned a copy of the New York Times and left it on my seat on the airplane. If you've been a reader of my blog, you already know that I prefer a plant-based diet and am always on the search for gourmet vegetarian food when I travel. My life is all about looking for the next green treasure. I simply look for the signs to lead me to where I need to go. In this case, it turned out to be in the Wednesday dining section restaurant reviews.

That particular issue featured Nix, a vegetarian restaurant that had opened in the West Village this past February with an unusual name derived from an 1893 Supreme Court decision declaring tomatoes to be a vegetable and not a fruit. It also just happened to be within walking distance of where I often stay when in town. The review had my mouth watering and ready to try these innovative vegetable dishes the reviewer had described the next time I was in New York.

A few weeks later when I was back in the city, I called up some good friends and suggested we all go and give Nix a try. They agreed. As often happens with hot New York restaurants the only reservation I could get for the night I wanted was at 9:45 PM. I took it with a request to move it up if anything were to open earlier. Miraculously I got a call later that they could move it up to 8:15 PM. When we arrived and checked in we were fortunate to run into one of the owners, James Truman, the former editorial director of Condé Nast.

It's very rare that one can find a vegetarian restaurant that is not only innovative and creative in its approach to the food served but also offered in a stylish setting. But as soon as we were escorted to a cozy corner table I was transfixed by the decor. The walls had been painted a careful clean white with simple but elegantly carved stone booths, covered with comfortable neutral cushions. This allowed the focus to be on the beautiful Joshua tree wooden lamps, which were strategically placed at regular intervals on a narrow ledge that runs behind the wall booths. That gave the whole restaurant the feeling of a being in the middle of an organic art installation from the 70s, chicly curated from a 21st-century culture master. I already felt I had been transported and had yet to taste John Frazier's food.

John Frazier is not only a partner in the restaurant and the genius behind Dovetail and Narcisse, but he is also a Michelin-starred chef with a personal passion for cooking with vegetables. He is doing at Nix what I long for more chefs to do - taking vegetables seriously and making even the carnivores in the room feel sated and happy.

With a delicious glass of biodynamic chilled white wine in hand, we started our feast with a yummy warm tandoor bread with two dips: house hummus and spiced eggplant with pine nuts followed by the ribbons of jicama with Fresno chili and blood oranges and baby carrots en papillote, cracked bulgar, almonds, spices. The carrots were my favorite - so far.

Even though we each ordered our own entree, it was hard not to want to share so we enjoyed the whole meal family style. Cauliflower tempura with steamed buns and house pickles, artichoke and broccoli rabe sauté with preserved tomatoes as well as the brown rice stir-fry, ramps, chanterelles and farm eggs.

For someone who doesn't eat sugar, the dénouement was the dessert. We ordered the cantaloupe sorbet with mezcal and lime and the tandoor roasted pineapple with tamarind glaze. They were a delicious duo, but it was the roasted macadamia nuts and toasted coconut flakes with whipped aquafaba, seared with vinegar that will keep me coming back to Nix every time I am in New York. I had never experienced aquafaba before, but one mouthful and I was hooked!

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If you have not heard of this delight, it's become a new wonder ingredient in vegan cooking for creating meringues and creams without any eggs. The liquid from legumes such as chickpeas can be reduced, thickened and whipped into a froth. The result at Nix was more delicious and more decadent than any meringue or whipped cream I have ever had!

For me personal environmental health is more than simply ridding my body of toxins, it's about nourishing my soul. It's about attention and artistry in my surroundings, savoring creatively prepared healthy foods and experiencing that with the people that are important to me. What James Truman and John Frazier have done with Nix is a miracle in Manhattan. With great friends and great food, the stars aligned for a most memorable evening.

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Spend Less, Do More: Corps Can Help Secure the Future of the National Park Service

Corpsmembers with New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg restore a historic structure at Gateway National Recreation Area. The NPS site sustained extensive damage during Hurricane Sandy.

Mary Ellen Sprenkel
CEO, The Corps Network

Today the National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday. The National Park Service embodies the best of what it means to be American. Since its founding, it has promoted the natural and cultural beauty of this country by protecting our national treasures and making them accessible to all citizens.

But after decades of use, our national parks are at a crossroads. Billions of dollars in backlogged maintenance projects threaten the accessibility of our parks. Additionally, despite changing national demographics, the average park visitor has become older and whiter. The most recent numbers show that just 22 percent of park goers are people of color.

To keep our parks relevant, the National Park Service is working to solve these two issues. Without comprehensive maintenance, we risk losing access to our parks. Without introducing new visitors to the park system, we risk not having dedicated advocates to conserve the parks for future generations.

There is a way we can solve both these issues at once: engage more Conservation Corps members in service at national parks. Corps train youth and returning veterans in conservation-related job skills and engage them in service projects on public lands. Trained Corpsmembers can help land and water managers with projects ranging from removing invasive plants to building trails and fighting wildfires.

Corpsmembers with LA Conservation Corps remove an invasive shrub, Spanish broom, from a roadside in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Part of why Corps are a solution for the National Park Service is that more than 50 percent of Corpsmembers are people of color, and many come from cities. They represent demographics less likely to visit national parks. Corps can also help agencies like the National Park Service reduce project labor costs by 50 - 80 percent, allowing for more work without increased spending.

The nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog represents how overburdened parks are on meeting basic upkeep needs. Each year we fail to address aging infrastructure, the backlog grows, and parks fall further into disrepair. Not to mention, this backlog doesn't include projects needed to bring our parks into the 21st century. We need to expand campsites and add modern conveniences, like Wi-Fi and charging stations, to make parks more appealing for a new generation of outdoor enthusiasts.

Some 15,000 Corpsmembers already serve at national parks every year. In addition to the National Park Service, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management have embraced Corps as valuable partners. By passing the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Act, we can engage more young people in service on public lands. This bipartisan-supported legislation, which has been introduced in both the House and Senate, would facilitate partnerships between Corps and federal resource management agencies. It would also encourage agencies to collaborate and use only existing funding streams to utilize Corps. In other words, more work would get done on public lands without added cost to taxpayers.

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Corpsmembers with Limitless Vistas test water samples at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in New Orleans, LA.

The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC) initiative has been working for years to promote public-private partnerships that support Corps engagement in projects on public lands. During her tenure as Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell has helped raise millions of dollars from private donors and companies like REI, Coca Cola, American Eagle Outfitters and KEEN to help fund Corps working in parks and forests.

Engagement of youth at our national parks and forests pays dividends beyond better trails and cleaner rivers. It turns young people into conservationists while teaching them valuable and marketable job skills.

Young people can translate their Corps experience into careers in expanding fields like historic preservation, environmental remediation and green infrastructure. By having a tangible impact on parks, Corpsmembers become life-long advocates for public lands and the environment. They also share this appreciation with family and friends, introducing entire communities to the importance of conservation. Making parks and conservation relevant to more and different people is vital to preserving historic structures and healthy green spaces for generations to come.

When we look at our national parks, we need to ask one fundamental question: Who will take care of these places 100 years from now? Unless we address the maintenance backlog and diversify the population visiting and protecting parks, the future is less than certain.

This is not something we can leave to chance. Let's seize the momentum of the National Park Service's centennial to prepare our parks for the next century. These are the places that bind us as Americans. They speak to our shared ideals and values. They bring out the best in us. With Corps, we can bring out the best in our parks.

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Keeping The Animal Welfare Act On The Job Of Animal Protection

During these times of political conflict and division, one issue that draws bipartisan and nearly universal support is animal welfare. For decades, the efforts of animal welfare advocates to fight animal cruelty and suffering have been supported through the help of an enduring ally, but that ally isn't a person, agency, or organization — it's a law: The Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which turns 50 this month.

Though the AWA was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson back in 1966, it continues to evolve to protect more types of vulnerable animals and confront modern challenges to their lives and well-being. While considerable results have been achieved in the last half-century to continue that momentum, further progress is still needed to provide animals with the protections they deserve.

One of the most heinous forms of cruelty addressed by the AWA is animal fighting. In 2014, Congress amended the AWA to increase penalties for animal fighting, including making attendance at an animal fight a federal offense, and imposing additional penalties for bringing a child to an animal fight.

Elevating the seriousness of this cruel blood sport helped pave the way for the U.S. Sentencing Commission to strengthen federal sentencing guidelines for animal fighting earlier this year, including giving judges the tools they need to ensure criminal sentences for animal abusers reflect the depravity of their crimes.

While these and other AWA measures are helping eradicate illegal activities like animal fighting, the AWA still does not cover the vast majority of animals used in research, nor the billions of farm animals raised for food across the country.

The loophole excluding farm animals used for agricultural research — including taxpayer-funded research conducted by the USDA — was highlighted when a 2015 New York Times investigation revealed abhorrent abuse and lax oversight at the USDA's Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), a federally funded facility conducting experiments to benefit private industrialized agriculture.

To stop these cruel practices, a bipartisan team of lawmakers introduced the Animal Welfare in Agricultural Research Endeavors (AWARE) Act, which seeks to extend AWA protections and welfare standards to farm animals used in agricultural research at federal facilities such as USMARC.

Another shortcoming of the AWA is its notoriously weak standards of care for dogs in commercial breeding facilities, including puppy mills. Under current AWA regulations enforced by the USDA, dogs in commercial breeding facilities can legally spend their entire lives in small wire-floored cages, stacked on top of one another. Female dogs can be bred at every heat cycle with no opportunities for their bodies to recover.

These conditions are inhumane and unacceptable, which is why a coalition of animal welfare groups filed a petition to urge the USDA to adopt stronger care standards that prioritize the health and well-being of dogs in commercial breeding facilities. We implore the USDA to swiftly grant this petition.

Recent natural disasters have also revealed the need for another key update to the law, dealing with animal considerations in disaster planning. The Animal Emergency Planning Act would amend the AWA to require regulated facilities — including commercial animal breeders, zoos, and research institutions — to create emergency response plans that protect animals in their care during disasters, such as the current flooding in Louisiana.

So much has changed for animals over the last 50 years, but the foundation of animal welfare embodied in the framework of the AWA will enable us to secure a more humane future. Our hope is that the pace of our progress will be accelerated by the actions and voices of principled lawmakers and passionate Americans who no longer tolerate animal abuse and cruelty in any corner of society.

Matthew Bershadker is President and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which celebrates its 150th Birthday this year.

Former Senator Bob Dole was a Congressman in the House of Representatives when he supported the original Animal Welfare Act in 1966, and authored ground-breaking amendments to it while in the U.S. Senate.

Previously published in The Hill

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Horse Soring Reflects Badly on Tennessee

Courtesy of the Humane Society of the United States

As anyone who has visited Tennessee will tell you, it is a beautiful state with many tourist attractions including the Smoky Mountains, Graceland, Beale Street, Dollywood and the Grand Ole Opry. Unfortunately, the actions of those who abuse Tennessee Walking Horses are also giving the state a black eye.

The decades-long practice of horse soring has been condemned by the horse industry, veterinary community, law enforcement and animal protection organizations. This cruel practice inflicts pain on the horse's feet and legs to produce an exaggerated gait known as the "Big Lick." Tennessee walking horses are bred for their smooth, natural gait and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) supports the many owners and trainers who use humane training methods to showcase this natural gait.

I serve on the board of HSUS and also own five horses. I can't bear the thought of a horse fitted with tall, heavy shoes, its legs covered with caustic chemicals and chains, and hard objects jammed into its tender soles all for the sake of the "Big Lick" and a ribbon in a competition. These practices are meant to cause pain and are unbearably cruel.

The people of Tennessee should stand up for their horses by supporting new regulations put forth by the USDA to close loopholes in the current system of enforcement - it's the right thing to do The proposed changes to upgrade the Horse Protection Act regulations include:

• The elimination of the use on show grounds of stacks, pads, chains, and hoof bands on Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds, and
• The elimination of the current industry policy of self-policing to be replaced by the implementation of a new system of independent third party inspectors, who are trained, licensed and overseen by the USDA.

I urge the people of Tennessee to raise their voices in support of these new regulations by submitting favorable comments to the USDA immediately. Visit the government website at this link: http://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=APHIS-2011-0009 and show your support for the Tennessee Walking Horse. Then post a message on your Facebook page urging your friends to join you.

Tennessee does not want to be known as a state that abuses horses. Here is an opportunity for them to help achieve change and send a message to those who show Tennessee Walking Horses that the days of the "Big Lick" are over.

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The Israeli public says NO to fracking
In September 2014 an Israeli government planning committee delivered a remarkable decision: it rejected a pilot project for non-conventional oil exploration in the country's Adulam region located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, a pastoral rural area rich in biblical archeology with a strong eco-tourism sector.

The company that had submitted the request, Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), had planned to use an untested technology called "In Situ Thermal Recovery" to produce oil by heating shale rock to temperatures as high as 950 degrees Fahrenheit. This releases organic matter known as kerogen, a compound that eventually transforms organic matter into oil and gas.

The committee's decision was a major victory for Israel's environmentalists, and a fatal blow for the IEI. IEI had argued that the since the project would operate underground, it would leave a minimal ecological footprint, and water resources would not be endangered because of an impermeable rock layer protecting them. However, the committee remained unconvinced, and its final decision determined that the technology posed a critical environmental risk.

The real winners here were the local activists whose health, environment and communities had come under direct threat by the proposed IEI project. Their media-savvy campaign presence has compared the conflict to the biblical confrontation between David and Goliath; the project location was in the same area where the diminutive David emerged victorious over the giant Goliath.

The local community's victory was an empowering experience for other communities, as well, demonstrating that corporations intent on extracting natural resources in disregard of the impacts on the environment and health of local communities can be stopped by a well organized group of dedicated citizens.

But while the celebrations for the Adulam victory were at their height, another government planning committee, this time in the northern part of Israel, approved the request of IEI's sister corporation, Afek Oil & Gas, for exploratory drilling in the Golan Heights.

While Afek is officially promoting the project as conventional drilling, Afek officials have admitted that the project does entail non-conventional drilling. Moreover, community activists are convinced that the company intends to use fracking during the explorations, and that fracking has probably already taken place.

The presence of chemicals stored at the drilling sites (fracking requires extensive use of chemicals in order to clean, widen, and keep open cracks in the rock, releasing the hydrocarbons) coupled with the refusal of government officials and Afek to release information on these chemicals and the company's declared need to extend the drilling in order to reach what it claims is a rich layer of hydrocarbons, substantiate these claims by activists.

This has raised an alarm among local communities determined to ward off what they are convinced will be an ecological and health disaster. They are particularly concerned over contamination of the area's water resources: the Golan Heights is marked by extreme water sensitivity with high quality aquifers as well as biodiversity-rich streams that feed into the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main surface drinking water source and only fresh water lake. Another source of worry beyond the impact of Afek's project on water quality is the massive quantities of water needed for fracking.

Moreover, local communities do not want oil pipelines running through or near their communities, nor do they wish for oil and gas trucks traversing their narrow, winding, country roads, already congested by much-wanted tourists.

Then there is the threat of earthquakes: the oil drilling license area is located on the rim of the great Syria-African Rift and is crossed by geologic faults and cracks. These faults and cracks provide potential pathways for pollutants. Coupled with normally occurring tectonic activity, this increases the potential for great intensification of earthquakes due to drilling and fracking activities, as experienced in Alberta, Canada, and in Oklahoma and Texas in the United States.

And all this leads to climate change. Environmentalists vehemently oppose these projects since they increase Israel's dependence on fossil fuels and deflect from government policy on decreasing Israel's greenhouse gas emissions.

IEI and Afek Oil & Gas are subsidiaries of Genie Oil & Gas Ltd. (GOGAS), a New Jersey corporation with headquarters in Newark that operates in Israel through these two subsidiaries.

Genie Oil & Gas is a subsidiary of Genie Energy Ltd., which was spun off in 2001 by IDT, the telecommunications company founded by Howard Jonas in 1990. Genie Energy Ltd. is a holding company for energy related businesses including Genie Oil & Gas, which is developing oil and shales reserves in Colorado, Israel and Mongolia.

In Israel, IEI and Afek have built their PR campaigns on making the country energy-independent, hyping what they define as Israel's huge reserves of oil shale and gleefully declaring that extracting oil and gas from these reserves could transform the country into a world energy power. But as pointed by Afek's CEO himself, while approximately 530 wells have been drilled since the country's establishment in 1948, commercial production of fossil fuels remains elusive.

Although the company reports finding evidence of hydrocarbons and/or gas in all the sites drilled so far (some in the form of liquid oil), the presence of water and the low permeability in the hydrocarbon and gas carrying strata made it difficult to extract viable amounts of liquid oil and gas under current permit restrictions. Reviewing its data, Afek has already announced that it does not plan to resume actual drilling before the Q4 2016, Q1 2017.

The burning question is: do people have the right to say no to these corporations that come into their communities creating these environmental and health risks? In Israel, communities are proving that they do have the right to decide. As documented in Josh Fox's epic documentary, Gaslands, fracking is tearing apart communities across the United States, contaminating well water, polluting the air, and making people sick.

The oil and gas companies retort that there is no evidence to support the claims of the anti-fracking forces. But the Israeli public isn't buying their excuses and is fighting tooth and nail to prevent these companies from operating in their communities. Communities together with environmental organizations are fending off attempts by US companies to copy and paste the US paradigm of non-conventional fossil fuel drilling in Israel.

So investors beware: this current venture for oil and gas exploration in the Golan Heights will in all likelihood go the way of its sister corporation, IEI, in losing its battle for unconventional drilling in Israel.

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