[ASSURAS] The deepwater discovery that could have a huge impact on the Middle East's energy landscape.

[PHILIP KALSON] It's changed things completely.

[ASSURAS] How Israel's big offshore natural gas find could lead to its energy independence and help the U.S.

[GIDEON TADMOR] All of a sudden, you see indicators of gas and you know that the world has changed, and it happens like that. [Snaps]

[ASSURAS] Plus, America's clean energy corridor. Blazing a natural gas trail towards our own energy independence. The alternative fuel highway that could cut oil imports and the cost of products we buy.

And turning to solar without investing a nickel and getting off the grid.

[MARK FISHER] When you're looking at those goose eggs on your energy bill, it's like, wow, it's really actually working.

[ASSURAS] From the Cincinnati Zoo...

[Monkey howling]

[ASSURAS] ...to visionaries helping ignite the push to solar.

[STEVE MELINK] So we're generating an excess of power.

[PATTY KIM] This is the future!

[MELINK] This is the future!

[ASSURAS] Successful solar solutions.

[ASSURAS] This is "energyNOW!"

Hello, everyone. I'm Thalia Assuras. Welcome to "energyNOW!", a weekly look at America's energy challenges and what we're doing about them. And one of the biggest challenges is reducing our continuing dependence on foreign oil. Imagine this -- Saudi Arabia suddenly stops selling its oil to the U.S. for a few weeks. Unlikely, but should it happen, America would lose about 6% of its oil supply, driving up already high gas prices. We're not alone in our dependence on other nations for energy and the threat that poses. One of our staunchest allies, Israel, depends on natural gas from neighboring Egypt to generate 40% of its electricity. And no less than nine attacks on Egyptian gas pipelines this year have interrupted that supply. Three attacks in November targeted pipelines in the Sinai Peninsula. But a new discovery deep under the Mediterranean Sea might help Israel wean itself off foreign energy imports and could help the U.S. boost its own energy independence. More now from Chief Correspondent Tyler Suiters in our continuing look at "The Israel Connection."

[SUITERS] In Israel, peace and power come at a price.

[UZI LANDAU, MINISTER OF NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE] Knowing that we cannot rely on anyone around us, we have to see how we could become long-time energy independent.

[SUITERS] Uzi Landau is charged with ensuring that his country has the energy it needs -- a difficult task since Israel depends heavily on imported fossil fuels, like oil, coal and natural gas.

[GIDEON TADMOR, PRESIDENT AND CEO, DELEK ENERGY] There was an old joke saying, why did it take Moses 40 years to get from Egypt to Israel -- because he was looking 40 years for the only place in the Middle East without oil and gas.

[SUITERS] An old joke that Gideon Tadmor never took literally. His company, Delek, looked for energy off the coast of Israel, deep in the Mediterranean Sea. This is what Tadmor and Delek have found. First, a pair of small natural gas fields, called Noa, and Mari-B, in 1999 and 2000, the first proof that Israel had its own significant gas reserves.

[AMOS LASKER] With the natural gas, we do have a revolution here in Israel.

[SUITERS] Amos Lasker just stepped down as the head of Israel Electric, the country's sole electric utility. He says the first Israeli gas fields started a revolution but can't sustain it. The country still needs natural gas from Egypt.

[LASKER, FEBRUARY 2011] Actually, now that I'm speaking with you, I think it's 2 1/2 weeks that we don't have any supply from Egypt. And we are under very, very tough and severe pressure.

[SUITERS] That's why the search for more natural gas has been such a priority for Israel. And as recently as January 9 of 2009, that search wasn't going well at Delek.

[TADMOR] Everyone was very grim. Everyone thought, we past the point. What the hell is going on? How could we miss it? And I am saying, "Guys, it's my birthday. Nothing wrong could happen on my birthday." And I sit at the table. You know, instant after I sit down, all of the sudden, we saw the indication.

[SUITERS] Instants, just a few moments?

[TADMOR] Yeah. It was unbelievable.

[SUITERS] That discovery, on Tadmor's birthday, was Tamar, holding five times as much natural gas as the earlier finds and it was soon followed by the smaller Dalit field. And then, last year, the mother lode -- Leviathan, an offshore gas field Minister Landau called, "the most important energy news since the founding of Israel." Potentially enough natural gas to supply all of Israel's energy needs for the next 25 years.

[TADMOR] All of a sudden, you see indicators of gas and you know that the world has changed. And it happens like that, in one instance. [Snaps]

[PHILIP KALSON] Oh, it's changed things completely.

[SUITERS] American Philip Kalson showed me what that change looks like today. Israel Electric's Ashdod Power Station sits on the Mediterranean coast. A pipeline connects it to the Mari-B gas field.

[KALSON] What we're showing here is how, with a station that already has 35 years of life in it, has been rejuvenated by making it a gas-fired station.

[SUITERS] As of 2004, the Ashdod plant burned only heavy fuel oil, and as of 2003, Israel got no electricity by burning natural gas. Now, Ashdod runs on Egyptian supplies and Israel's own offshore gas reserves.

[KALSON] During the past seven years that we've been receiving gas, we've expanded the capacity of the generation system by over 25%, and all of that's being done by adding capacity with gas.

[SUITERS] So the last 10 years or so, you have redefined the way you produce electricity.

[KALSON] Certainly.

[SUITERS] Kalson says, by 2020, as much as 80% of Israel's electricity could come from natural gas. Think about that -- from 0% to 80% in less than two decades, all possible because of the Leviathan gas field.

[TADMOR] It's the largest deepwater, offshore natural gas discovery in the decade around the world.

[SUITERS] And there may be oil underneath that.

[TADMOR] There may be oil, but we're not there yet.

[SUITERS] Then again, Israel might not need nearly as much oil. The country wants to turn some of its natural gas into liquid methanol, a substitute for gasoline, and use it to fuel the country's cars. Methanol supporters in the U.S. say they like the idea of working on that technology with Israel much better than working with China, the world's largest producer and user of methanol. And by converting more of its own huge natural gas reserves into methanol, the U.S. could also cut back on imported oil.

[LANDAU] We pull today to a gasoline station, and we see the pump ticking, and then we take our wallets to pay -- some say 20%, some say 30%, some say even higher percentages than that, are going to countries which support terror.

[SUITERS] But what lies beneath the Mediterranean Sea could bring a new reality to the surface.

[TADMOR] You see the flare, you see the action, you see excitement. I think you see all the ingredients of a nice story.

[SUITERS] Do you see money?

[TADMOR] You know what? No. [Laughs]

[SUITERS] What's the intangible you see, a dream come true?

[TADMOR] Yeah, a dream come true.

[TEXT ON SCREEN] To hear more about Israel's transition to natural gas, go to energynow.com.

[SUITERS] A dream, Tadmor says, that results from the science of deepwater drilling, the art of thinking outside the box, and...

[TADMOR] Luck -- but that's relatively easy, because we are in Israel, so a call to God is a local call.

[SUITERS] [Laughs]

[ASSURAS] There is a dark cloud that hangs over Israel's natural gas discoveries. Earlier this year, the leader of the Islamic extremist group Hezbollah warned Israel about robbing Lebanon of its resources, accusing Israel of taking natural gas that Lebanon believes lies under its part of the Mediterranean Sea.

While natural gas is the next big thing in Israel, that energy source has helped fuel the economy of another country -- Russia -- since the early 1800s. It wasn't until after World War II, though, that homes in the capital city of Moscow got full access to it. Take a look at this energyTHEN from 1949.

[Film projector running]

[NARRATOR] More and more apartments are getting natural gas in the Soviet capital. The lucky housewives in house number 8 on Dubrovsky Street are using gas as of today. The Moscow Gas Trust sends in a man to turn on the gas. Over 200,000 Moscow housewives will get gas by 1950, the last year of the current Five-Year Plan.

[ASSURAS] Today, Russia doesn't just supply its own people. Far from it. Russia is the largest natural gas exporter in the world. According to the Energy Information Administration, about 95% of Russia's gas is produced in Siberia and sent to markets in Europe and Asia.

Still to come, America has its own huge supplies of natural gas that could fuel our cars and trucks, but making that happen comes with a hefty price.

[REBECCA SCHENKER] You are talking at least a million dollars for an LNG station, in general.

[SULLIVAN] That's not chump change.

[SCHENKER] No.

[ASSURAS] The effort to build a clean energy corridor across America's west. > And later, solar power solutions that are saving customers lots of money.

[LYNN JURICH] Making renewables affordable and mass-produced is what our generation needs to accomplish.

[BREAK]

[KRISTI YAMAGUCHI] Meet the faces of influenza, groups who should be immunized every year.

[MAN] I have a chronic medical condition.

[WOMAN] Diabetes.

[BOY] Asthma.

[MAN] I have COPD, a serious lung disease.

[WOMAN] Pregnant during influenza season.

[WOMAN] We live with a baby under six months old.

[GIRL] I'm 4 1/2 years old.

[BOY] I'm 14.

[WOMAN] I'm over 50 years old.

[WOMAN] Way over 50.

[WOMAN] Care for someone at risk.

[GIRL] I live with someone at risk.

[YAMAGUCHI] The American Lung Association asks, do you see your family or yourself here? As one of the many faces of influenza, you and I and those close to us need to get vaccinated. In an average year, about 36,000 people die from influenza and its complications. See your health care provider about getting vaccinated. It's a safe and effective way to prevent influenza. Visit facesofinfluenza.org. Influenza isn't the common cold. It's serious.

[END BREAK]

[ASSURAS] Filling your car with gasoline is pretty easy to do. After all, gas stations are everywhere. But our nationwide network of filling stations has been built over the course of a century and that gives oil-based fuels like gasoline and diesel a huge head-start over alternative fuels, like hydrogen and natural gas. So, what's it going to take for alternative fuel filling stations to catch on? "energyNOW"'s Lee Patrick Sullivan takes a look at how some companies are taking charge of building a network of natural gas pumps.

[SULLIVAN] I know you've heard the age-old question, What came first, the chicken or the egg? I mean, you can't have one without the other. That's the same challenge that is facing long-haul truckers when it comes to converting their fleets to liquefied natural gas. I mean, who would have an LNG truck if there were no stations? And who would build a station if there were no LNG trucks?

This was the problem facing the advocates of the ICTC, the Interstate Clean Transportation Corridor. It's a proposed network of LNG stations allowing long-haul truckers to travel from Salt Lake City across to Reno, through California, past Vegas and on to Phoenix while using cleaner-burning and less expensive liquefied natural gas.

Basically, you're trying to build a bunch of filling stations.

[REBECCA SCHENKER, GLADSTEIN, NEANDROSS & ASSOCIATES] We're trying to build a bunch of fueling stations to support alternative fuels.

[SULLIVAN] One of those fuels is LNG, a natural gas that's been cooled so much that it turns into a liquid. It's stored in this tank right here. Think of it as a large Thermos. Its energy density allows it to be used for long-haul trucks.

There's also CNG, a natural gas that is compressed for use in short-haul vehicles and cars. To accomplish this, the cold LNG, or liquefied natural gas, runs through this set of pipes right here that look a little bit like a radiator. That's where the gas gets back to room temperature. It's then sent through a compressor. That's that annoying banging sound you hear in the background. According to the think tank Resources for the Future, an aggressive program to convert the nation's big rigs from diesel to liquefied natural gas could say 1.2 million barrels of oil a day by the end of the decade. That's about 2/3 of the amount of oil the U.S. currently imports from the Persian Gulf.

So, why hasn't this been done? One word -- infrastructure.

You have people that say, "I'm not going to build an LNG station because there are no LNG trucks," and people say, "I'm not going to buy an LNG truck because there's no LNG station."

[SCHENKER] And we bring them all together at the table and say, "How can we make this happen?"

[SULLIVAN] And that's exactly what happened at this LNG station in Ontario, California. Rebecca Schenker's firm helped get it built. A private company runs the station. UPS donated the land and uses it to fuel its fleet of LNG and CNG vehicles. Big Brown also allows other vehicles in the community to use the facilities.

[SCHENKER] You'll see outside right now Burrtec Waste Industries is fueling, and they're a local refuse collection fleet.

[SULLIVAN] Now, this waste facility vehicle, they probably may not have switched to CNG if they had to build their own station.

[SCHENKER] Exactly. That's why stations like this are important. Where you invest in one station, you're really investing in support for a number of different types of vehicles and fleets in the entire area.

[SULLIVAN] Two fuels, one station. In the fueling station world, that's pretty cool. And speaking of cool, check out how cold that LNG can get. It makes frost here in sunny Southern California. We're talking minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit.

[DJ ROMERO] It's pretty cold.

[SULLIVAN] So you wouldn't want to stick your tongue on that nozzle. It would definitely stick to it.

[ROMERO] No, we don't want to do that.

[SULLIVAN] UPS is investing big in LNG and other alternative fuels to help reduce its carbon footprint.

You're talking about the broad picture of reducing greenhouse gases, but you guys are still running a business. How does this work out as far as the prices of fuel?

[ROMERO] This is running a lot less cost, so there is an alternative to that as saving us money as well.

[SULLIVAN] Romero says LNG costs about half as much as diesel. Despite having ambitions to link four western states into the ICTC, currently there is only one LNG station outside California.

This is major infrastructure.

[SCHENKER] It is, and you are talking, depending on the size of the station, how many users, scalability -- you can start with it smaller then add more tanks later. But you are talking at least a million dollars for an LNG station, in general.

[SULLIVAN] Despite that price tag, another branch of the ICTC is being planned in Texas. And Chesapeake Energy, the country's second largest natural gas producer, has pledged $1 billion over 10 years to help build LNG and CNG stations across the entire country. That $1 billion is about what the U.S. spends on imported oil every day.

[AUBREY McCLENDON, CEO, CHESAPEAKE ENERGY] I think pretty soon we'll get to a point where you'll have a coast-to-coast and border-to-border network, what we call the America's Natural Gas Highway and System.

[SULLIVAN] But there are still more hurdles to jump. I mean, that's just the chicken part. We still need some eggs. When it comes to passenger cars, Honda is the only automaker that even makes a CNG vehicle. The American Trucking Association is still looking into whether LNG trucks are a good fit for their members.

[CURTIS WHALEN, AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION] We're finding, yeah, generally speaking, as I talk to my members who are operating fleets long enough, they seem to be a little bit higher cost to maintain. They obviously require a different kind of mechanical approach to it, so you can't use your guys, I don't think, that were doing the older trucks. They're going to move to servicing these trucks.

[SULLIVAN] Whalen says, because of strict emissions regulations, a lot of his members just switched from traditional diesel to the new low-sulfur, clean diesel engines just about four years ago. And unlike eggs, these rigs have a long shelf life and are expensive to repair. In Ontario, California, Lee Patrick Sullivan, "energyNOW!"

[ASSURAS] While they cost more up front, natural gas trucks pollute less than their diesel counterparts. That spurred the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port, to put more than $12 million into a program to boost the number of LNG and CNG trucks used there.

A note about "energyNOW!" Our funding comes from the American Clean Skies Foundation which is funded in part by Chesapeake Energy, a major player in the natural gas business. We are editorially independent.

Another option, primarily when it comes to cars, is the electric vehicle. Now, of course, if the electricity for the charge comes from fossil fuels, that diminishes its clean energy credibility. Then again, maybe not anymore. And that's what's in this week's "energyNOW!" hotZONE.

Ford and SunPower have teamed up for the new Focus Electric, giving buyers the option of spending another $10,000 to buy rooftop solar panels which can be used to charge the ride. Ford says the 2.5-kilowatt solar system can generate enough electricity in a year to power a car for 12,000 miles. Now, it's true that if you charge your car at home after dark when solar doesn't work, you'll still pull electricity from the regular grid. But Ford says the solar electricity produced during the day will offset what you use at night. Ford is already taking orders for the new EV, with a March 2012 delivery date.

When we come back, there's no monkeying around with the energy supply at the Cincinnati Zoo.

[MARK FISHER] On a day like today, right now, every single building in our zoo is off the grid. Every single building.

[ASSURAS] We'll show you how going solar is getting the zoo off the grid and saving money. And how you could do the same for a lot less than you might think.

[BREAK]

[TEXT ON SCREEN] Can I recycle a beer bottle with a lime wedge suck inside?

Natch. But limes make good compost. Just sayin'. www.grist.org

Laugh now or the planet gets it.

[ANNOUNCER] When you throw away money on wasted electricity... you're throwing away everything you could have bought with it. Saving energy saves you money. Learn more at ENERGYSAVERS.GOV.

[ANNOUNCER] Traditional light bulbs actually generate nine times more heat than light. Switch to EnergyStar light bulbs and you'll realize just how much cash you were really burning through. Saving energy saves you money. Learn more at ENERGYSAVERS.GOV.

[END BREAK]

[ASSURAS] Have you ever thought about switching to solar energy but figured it's either too expensive or too difficult? Well, maybe not. More and more businesses and homeowners are switching to the Sun. In fact, solar is turning up in unexpected places and shining through dark clouds. We head to the Midwest with "energyNOW"'s Patty Kim, looking at ways the technology is benefiting humans -- and animals, too -- in this "energyNOW!" Spotlight.

[KIM] These days, one of the star attractions of the Cincinnati Zoo is not what you might expect. It's a sea of solar panels -- over 6,000 of them -- spanning an area the size of nearly four football fields, installed over the zoo's parking lot. It's one of the largest public displays of solar in the country, making the Cincinnati Zoo one of America's greenest.

Ooh, that's a wet tongue there. With over a million visitors coming to the zoo every year and maybe a few more these days, thanks to a new baby giraffe -- this here is daddy, by the way, this is Kimba -- folks here at the Cincinnati Zoo are hoping that the new solar panel display will create a bit of "monkey see, monkey do."

[MARK FISHER, SENIOR DIRECTOR, CINCINNATI ZOO] The idea of having 1.3 million people a year park under this array, and then when they come up on this bridge, come in the zoo, they're like, "Wow! What is that?" We can say, "Hey, we did it," and if you can do it in Cincinnati, Ohio, don't tell me you can't do it wherever you're at.

[KIM] The panels are designed to produce 1.5 megawatts of electricity. That's about 20% of the zoo's total energy needs, and when you've got a yearly electric bill of more than half a million dollars, every sunny day adds up.

[FISHER] The good news is, everybody's getting some. So, the manatee filtration system. The polar bears to gorillas and elephant houses. I mean, on a day like today, right now, every single building in our zoo is off the grid.

[KIM] That means a sun-drenched day like today is good for the bottom line, when the zoo's not drawing any power from the utility company -- not a single kilowatt.

[FISHER] When I got my first energy bill, I started reading down and it was zero. I was like, wow, it's really, actually working, this is real.

[KIM] To build this $11 million project, the zoo didn't invest a nickel. Instead, the zoo simply pays a locked-in rate of about 10 cents per kilowatt hour to the solar panel owners, roughly the same price it would have paid the power company. The advantage comes over time. As utility prices go up, the zoo could save millions of dollars.

The project's financing was a complex web, weaving an assortment of federal tax credits, along with Ohio's own alternative energy incentives. But perhaps, most importantly, it took the vision of one local businessman.

[STEVE MELINK] So we're generating an excess of power, which explains why we're in the green mode here.

[KIM] This is the future.

[MELINK] This is the future.

[KIM] Steve Melink is head of Melink Corporation, the Ohio firm that designed, owns, and operates the zoo's solar array.

[MELINK] We've had the Industrial Age, we've had the Space Age, Internet Age. But it's very possible that we will not lead the coming Energy Age. It's going to be led by China or Germany or Japan.

[KIM] Melink wasn't always on energy's cutting edge. He originally built his success in the home heating and ventilation business.

3.8 kilowatts.

But one trip to a green building conference in Cleveland changed everything.

[MELINK] I cannot imagine us going back to where we were. I think that renewable energy will continue to grow.

[KIM] And more companies are hearing the call. In New Jersey, a Toys R Us is laying claim to one of the largest rooftop solar arrays on a single rooftop, outdoing a Macy's warehouse in Arizona. And in Maryland, Perdue Chicken is powering up with solar, joining Whole Foods and Staples.

[Bell clangs]

Now the Sun's rays are reaching beyond big business. Out west, one woman is leading the charge.

Any fantasy building that you'd love to actually see solar panels on one day? The Taj Mahal?

[LYNN JURICH] The Taj Mahal, that would be a good one.

[KIM] Lynn Jurich is the cofounder of SunRun, a company that leases solar panels to homeowners. It's like leasing a car. You pay little to nothing up front, and the company takes care of the rest, installing, maintaining, and selling you electricity at a locked-in rate for 20 years.

[JURICH] We know for consumers to adopt solar in the mainstream, it can't be hard and it can't be more expensive. Making renewables affordable and mass-produced is what our generation needs to accomplish.

[KIM] And so far for SunRun, so good. It's now one of the largest providers of residential solar power in the nation and has already reached 11,000 homeowners. They hope to double that next year.

[EXECUTIVES] Solar power service! Whoo!

[KIM] But the success hasn't come without huge risk. Jurich had to convince investors to inject millions into an uncharted solar universe. No small feat, given solar is still in fewer than 1% of homes in all of America.

[JURICH] I think we wouldn't be human if that didn't make us a little nervous. I mean, we're inventing this new industry. You know, it is a little bit of a Wild West out there. But that's entrepreneurship.

[KIM] No, no, don't be a gentleman, Ted. I climb ladders like this all the time.

[TED LIESER, LAUGHING] I'm sorry!

[KIM] One homeowner who "sees the light" is Ted Lieser of Mill Valley, California. He paneled his roof as a hedge against rising power rates, a choice, Ted says, in the long run, that could help him save thousands of dollars. But money isn't the only factor.

[LIESER] How could I say no? It's a minimal amount of cash out of pocket. Panels are on my roof. I'm cutting my emissions down. I'm being a good global citizen, a good role model for my kids. It was like, how could you not do this?

[TEXT ON SCREEN] To learn more about solar leasing, go to energynow.com.

[KIM] Change, it seems, is on the horizon.

[FISHER] We can say that this project, literally this project, has a direct relationship to motivating other folks, and that would be pretty cool.

[KIM] In Cincinnati, Ohio, Patty Kim, "energyNOW!"

[ASSURAS] Let's put solar use in the U.S. into context by looking at some numbers in this "energyNOW!" Reality Meter. From the start of 2001 to the end of 2010, the amount of U.S. electricity produced from solar sources jumped 163%, according to the Energy Information Administration. That trend is continuing. In the first six months of this year, solar electricity generation was up 44%. Even so, it still accounts for less than 1% of the nation's electricity.

Now, a quick note before we go. For the past couple of weeks, the world's climate change negotiators have been meeting in Durban, South Africa, at the United Nations Climate Summit. They've been trying to come up with an agreement to limit global greenhouse gas emissions. "energyNOW!" Chief Correspondent Tyler Suiters has been there, too, speaking with top officials from the UN and the American delegation about what the talks achieved. And next week on "energyNOW!", we'll have an inside look at what took place in Durban, and a look at South Africa's energy demands as it builds two of the world's biggest coal plants.

You can see more of our coverage from Durban on our Web site, energynow.com, where you can also check out our blogs, get the latest energy news, watch video extras, and be part of the energy conversation online as well. And reach out to us on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. Search for us at energyNOWnews. I'm Thalia Assuras. We'll see you next week.

[END SHOW]