California Gov. Jerry Brown used the occasion of the annual pre-Chanukah ceremonial menorah lighting sponsored by Chabad-Lubavitch of California to push for the development of renewable energy.

“What a wonderful time to celebrate Chanukah, and the festival of the lights and the whole idea that we’re running out of oil so we need a miracle,” Brown said at the Capitol, according to a blog posting by Los Angeles Times reporter Anthony York. Technology should be developed to “utilize the sun … to light up California.”

Back in April 1981, three days after a rare once-every-28-years blessing of the sun service outside of Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, elaborated on the significance of the solar cycle in a public talk. He pointed out that the sun presented an unending source of energy, and if the United States in particular developed solar technology, it could be self-sufficient in its energy production.