Chesapeake should revoke Energix solar energy permits over UN designated human rights concerns - IRmep

CHESAPEAKE, Va., Feb. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IRmep recommends the City of Chesapeake revoke its conditional use permit issued to Caden-Energix Hickory to build a 32 megawatt solar energy facility. Last week the Israeli company Energix Renewable Energy Ltd., which owns Caden Energix Hickory LLC, appeared on a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights list.

IRmep obtained, reviewed and publicly released the City of Chesapeake and Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality permit process docket. IRmep finds regulators have not properly weighed the moral hazard of licensing a project with problematic foreign ultimate beneficial owners alleged by UNHCR to routinely engage in overseas human rights violations.

1. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on February 12, listed Energix as a "Category G" business enterprise because it does business and uses natural resources in occupied Palestinian territory. In their factual determination, the UNHCR said such activities "raised particular human rights concerns."
2. Energix Renewable Energy Ltd. owns Caden Energix Hickory LLC according to its City of Chesapeake conditional use permit application.
3. According to Who Profits: The Israeli Occupation Industry Energix owns Meitarim Solar Field in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley on 98,749 square meters of Palestinian land. Surrounding Palestinian villages have reportedly been "suffering from forcible displacement, demolitions, lack of basic services and overall economic strangulation."
4. According to AFS Energix is alleged to have used "questionable methods in obtaining access to the land from its indigenous Syrian-Druze owners in violation of international law" to build in 2015 a 155 megawatt field of wind turbines in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
5. In 2019 Energix announced plans to build four additional utility-scale solar energy arrays in Virginia. These include Axton (66 megawatts), Gladys (60 megawatts), Jarratt (82.5 megawatts) and Wytheville (20 megawatts).

Virginia counties and cities determine through conditional use and construction permit licensing which solar energy producers operate within their jurisdictions. There is major competition for such opportunities between upstanding domestic corporate citizens based in Virginia and other states. Lack of due diligence into problematic foreign beneficial owners could produce negative outcomes for Chesapeake. Chesapeake is relying on Energix to respect its commitments to the local population, landowners, future site remediation, as well as other major project and legal obligations.

IRmep is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit corporation researching U.S. Middle East policy formulation since 2002.

SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy

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