Courthouse News Service
Landowner Can Sue Shell Over Fracking Hazards
Thursday, May 3, 2012
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (CN) – Shell Energy cannot dismiss claims that the controversial fracking technique to extract natural gas is an “ultra hazardous activity,” a federal judge ruled.
The claim stems from a lawsuit Edward Kamuck filed against Shell Energy Holdings GP in August 2011.
Kamuck says the energy giant’s fracking operation on land neighboring his 93-acre tract in rural Pennsylvania constitutes “an abnormally dangerous and ultra hazardous activity,” and that Shell should be subjected to strict liability for “the contamination and pollution caused by … releases, spills, sprays, emissions, discharges and flowback of hazardous chemicals and combustible gases.”
Calling himself a “totally disabled” Vietnam war veteran, Kamuck says Shell’s operation contaminated his land and water supply.
In March, a magistrate judge recommended that the court green light Kamuck’s claims of strict liability claim and private nuisance over the noise, fluid and dust associated with fracking.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Connor adopted that finding April 27.
Kamuck says he acquired the land in Mansfield, Pa., in December 2009.
His parcel had allegedly been subdivided from a 323-acre property that was subject to a 10-year oil and gas lease.
Kamuck says that Shell approached the owners of plots from the subdivided property a couple of years ago, asking them to amend the lease to allow for extraction of natural gas from the underlying Marcellus Shale. The vast rock formation contains massive natural gas reserves that have drawn the frenzied attention of drillers in recent years.
“All of the property owners who held lands formerly encompassed by the … lease signed the amendment to the … lease with one exception – the plaintiff, Edward Kamuck,” U.S. Magistrate Martin Carlson wrote in March.
“Accordingly, those adjoining properties are subject to the … lease, as amended, and the defendants have commenced drilling and extraction of natural gas from these properties under the terms of the amended … lease,” Carlson wrote. “Because Kamuck refused to enter into the amended … lease, the original 10-year lease on his property expired by its own terms on June 12, 2011.”
While the strict-liability and nuisance claims can proceed, the court dismissed Kamuck’s claim that Shell drilled the shale in breach of the lease.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
