and speaking Fukushima, I think fracking(if it causes earthquakes) and nuclear power plants are not a good combination.
^ Lots of things are bad combinations but nobody is suggesting those two will be combined.
I’m in favour of Nuclear as a stop-gap at least but not Fracking. If Fracking companies are prepared to pay for any and all damages incurred then fine
How do you pay for loss of life in earthquakes caused by fracking?
I don’t think we are talking that level of Earthquake. The kind that could do damage to the foundations of your property, or pollute your water supply, nothing on a Hollywood blockbuster scale.
but (in the UK at least) they have arranged it so they are immune from prosecution. Drill under my house. House falls in hole. Tough sh*t.
If that is so, that is absolutely ridiculous.
Ridiculous but true. I found a post from an Agricultural Solicitor discussing the relevant UK laws:
https://www.michelmores.com/news-views/news/fracking-landowner-rights
The key points:
The general rule at common law, with regards to land ownership, is that the person who owns the surface of a piece of land also owns the strata that exists beneath the surface. This is unless the rights have been sold separately from the land. However, by virtue of the Petroleum Act 1998, petroleum rights, including deposits of natural gas belong to the Crown. Operators are required to obtain a licence from the Government to search for and produce oil and gas. This is in contrast to the US, where landowners own sub-surface mineral rights.
prior to the enactment of the Infrastructure Act 2015, the law required a fracking operator to acquire the landowner’s permission to drill under their land and was required to compensate the landowner accordingly. This mirrored the position in the US.
Section 43 of the Infrastructure Act 2015 provides that there is now a right to drill for oil or gas at a depth of at least 300m below the surface. This effectively removes the need to gain consent from the landowner to access land at a depth below 300 metres.
As it stands there is no automatic right to compensation for an individual landowner.
So in short they rewrote the law in 2015 to allow fracking under your land without your permission and without needing to compensate you. As I said already, it doesn’t seem like the attitude of an industry that has faith in the safety of what it does.
As I understand it, in the US they would be required to gain your permission and to compensate you for access. Which as I also said above would be fine. If I’m financially compensated for drilling under my house then I’m fine with it.