Up in smoke - gas flaring

Here is a link to a NY Times article on class action lawsuits by shareholders of large oil companies including Continental Resources, XTO Energy, SM Energy and Marathon Oil for natural gas flaring in oil drilling operations in the Bakken Shale, ND. As we've discussed in class a few times, natural gas found with oil and coal is often flared to get rid of it (i.e., convert it to CO2, which is non-flammible). This has the added benefit of reducing the GHG footprint. However, the energy embodied in the natural gas is not being captured and sold. The shareholders are suing to changes this practice to increase the value of their investment. Seems strange that they'd have to sue - I'm surprised that a clear-eyed cost-benefit analysis hasn't instructed these companies to flare the gas. Clearly there are costs for capturing/transporting this gas and, as the article points out, some of this infrastructure is being created to harvest natural gas in ND. It's interesting too that we're seeing this for natural gas flaring. I wonder if suits are emerging for natural gas leakage too?