Petition Drive Underway Against Devon, Chesapeake and New Dominion

More than 11,000 people have signed a nationwide petiton drive led by the Washington, D.C. non-profit watchdog, Public Justice aimed against the three energy companies sued last week for causing earthquakes through their wastewater disposal wells.

At last report, 11,461 had signed the petition at Change.org calling on Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy and New Dominion to curb fracking in Oklahoma. Some of the petition signers are from Oklahoma—others from around the nation. When the number reaches 15,000, the petitions will be submitted to the three companies named in the lawsuit filed in Oklahoma City federal court.

The petition page says Oklahoma is literally being shaken to its core by oil and gas companies. It states the link between the increased earthquake activity and the oil and gas industry’s fracking operations have been established by countless experts and “other scientists who have assembled compelling and conclusive evidence linking the injection of waste product used in fracking to an alarming increase in seismic activity.”

The organization also claims the large amount of production waste from fracking and oil production operations that is injected into the ground raises the likelihood of a devastating quake that could kill large numbers of people and cause massive environmental devastation.

The petition called on the public to “Join Public Justice in calling on Oklahoma’s oil and gas companies to take immediate steps to curb their impact on the state’s people and environment.”