Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumCourt Will Decide if Fracking Companies Can be Held Responsible for Earthquakes
1/27/15
Oklahomas highest court is about to make a decision that could really shake up the way fracking companies do business in the state.
In the coming months, Oklahomas Supreme Court will decide whether two oil companies should be held financially responsible for injuries suffered by a woman during a 2011 earthquake thought to have been caused by drilling activity. If the womans lawsuit is successful, it could set a legal precedent for future earthquake claims against oil and gas companies in Oklahoma.
In other words, oil and gas wells in Oklahoma would become economic and legal-liability pariahs, attorney Robert Gum said in comments reported by the Tulsa World.
First, the back story. The lawsuit in question was brought by Sandra Ladra, a woman who lives in a small town called Prague. Ladra claims that on Nov. 5, 2011, she was sitting at home watching television with her family when a 5.6 magnitude intraplate earthquake struck, causing big chunks of rock to fall from her fireplace and chimney. Some of the rocks fell onto Ladras legs and into her lap, causing what the lawsuit describes as significant injury. Ladra was taken to the emergency room and treated.
Then, two years later in March 2013, scientists from the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and the U.S. Geological Survey published a peer-reviewed study in the journal Geology, linking the 2011 earthquake to a process called wastewater injection. During that process, companies take the leftover water used to drill wells and inject it deep into the ground.
The Geology findings were disputed by Oklahoma Geological Survey, which asserted that the Prague earthquake was more likely the result of natural causes. But at the same time, more studies across the country found connections between wastewater injection and earthquakes, including one which linked approximately 2,500 small Oklahoma earthquakes to the process....
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/01/27/court-will-decide-fracking-companies-can-held-responsible-earthquakes/
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Talk about guts!
No kidding. This has the makings of a John Grisham novel.
Hoping for a miraculous & thrilling happy conclusion. (It would truly be a miracle if the oil co lost.)
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Good post, sarcastic humor to make a point, always good. But your SIG line is hilarious!!! Thanks for the morning giggle.
Response to RiverLover (Original post)
Hoppy This message was self-deleted by its author.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)cstanleytech
(26,292 posts)difficult.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Corporations are people, irresponsible people.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)Because money is free speech.
Orrex
(63,213 posts)Shame on you! Shame!
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)I always did like the Born to be Wild look.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Thespian2
(2,741 posts)have lawyers crawling all over any case that might disrupt their destruction of the earth. Winning a law suit against the EVIL GREEDY BASTARDS will be almost impossible. I sincerely hope that this case wins. The Oklahoma Geological Survey should, perhaps, hire some qualified geologists to work for them. I believe they probably caved to money.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Its an ongoing fight. But for now, the people of NY state won their battle ag greed & its destruction. This case in OK won't have a happy ending I'm sure, but the NY case gives me hope.
Panich52
(5,829 posts)Pretty sure OK on same relatively stable tectonic plate as MO. When there's a natural earthquake there, it's a doozy. New Madrid quake changed Mississippi's course. Reason they're rare but violent is because they're 'root' is so deep.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)Life is so much simpler (and profitable) when you simply use money to over-ride
such quaint & outdated concepts as "facts" and "logic" ...
Good luck anyway.