Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The CEO of Geothermal Explorers, the company that was drilling as part of a Basel geothermal energy project called Deep Heat, has been cleared of wrongdoing by a court in the city. Charges were brought against Markus Haering after the company’s drilling appeared to provoke earthquakes in Basel in 2006 and early 2007.
The project was temporarily closed and 11 December 2009 it shut down permanently after the city concluded that Basel is not a suitable site. The city has some 300 small earthquakes a year.
The tremors caused several thousand francs in damage in the city.
Haering was found not guilty of willful wrongdoing. The court accepted that he acted in line with scientific knowledge at the time and that he had made the risks sufficiently clear. The public prosecutor had been asking for an 18-month prison term.
Background, GenevaLunch
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News story, GenevaLunch, 22 December 2009.
Filed under: Business
Tags: Basel, CEO, court case, deep heat, drilling, earthquakes, Geothermal Explorers, geothermal heating, law, legal, Markus Haering, mining, tremors