Finally some accountability - Netherlands court orders gas companies to pay for fracking quake damage
Earlier this month, a court in the Netherlands issued an order forcing Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil companies, to pay compensation to homeowners over the fall in the value of their homes due to earthquake activity around the massive Groeningen gas field caused by gas drilling.
Nearly 100,000 homes have been damaged by seismic activity and the Dutch Safety Board has warned, multiple times, that natural gas production has increased earthquake risk in the territory. They believe that not enough has been done by the drilling companies to mitigate the risk.
The companies have already put aside $1.4 billion to compensate 900 homeowners and 12 housing associations.
The ruling comes in coordinance with an Oklahoma ruling citing that citizens can sue oil and gas companies for damages related to earthquakes caused by fracking related drilling. In the state, quakes have risen sharply. Before 2008, the state averaged just one magnitude 3+ earthquake every decade but the number has risen sharply. In 2014 alone, there were 585 magnitude 3+ earthquakes in the state.
