Greenpeace to Appeal $660M Verdict in Pipeline Case

A jury has ruled that Greenpeace, a left-wing environmental activist group, must pay $667 million to Energy Transfer, the Texas company that partially owns the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A North Dakota jury on March 19 found Greenpeace USA liable for defamation, trespass, nuisance, and civil conspiracy. Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace Fund Inc. were found liable for some of those charges. Greenpeace USA was ordered to pay about $404 million in damages, and Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International each to pay about $131 million.

Vicki Anderson Granado, vice president of corporate communications at Energy Transfer, told The Daily Signal that the company was delighted by the verdict.

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“We are very pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us and that the jury recognized these were not law-abiding, peaceful protests as Greenpeace tried to claim,” Granado said in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“Our victory is shared with the people of [the city of] Mandan and throughout North Dakota, who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace. It is also a win for all law-abiding Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law. That Greenpeace has been held responsible is a win for all of us.”

Greenpeace claimed that having to pay even about $300 million in damages would be enough to shut down the group’s operations in the United States. It said it would appeal the decision.

The lawsuit comes after violent protests and vandalism erupted around the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. The pipeline stretches more than 1,100 miles across North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. It can transport as much as 500,000 barrels of crude oil daily between Bakken, North Dakota, and Patoka, Illinois.

Actions related to the protests have resulted in about 800 criminal cases. Some protesters argued that the local water supply was in jeopardy because of the pipeline and that the pipeline went through sacred Indian tribal lands. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe unsuccessfully sued to prevent the completion of the project.

Some residents of Morton County, North Dakota, through which the pipeline passed, were more troubled by the protesters’ actions than by the construction project itself.

“The local residents of Morton County are fatigued and frustrated,” Cody Schulz, then-chairman of the Morton County Commission, told The Daily Signal at the time, back in November 2016.

According to then-Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., now a U.S. senator, the protests had morphed beyond their initial form.

“Well, what’s interesting is, what started out as a prayerful, peaceful protest, of course, has turned into a very violent and aggressive riot in many cases,” Cramer told Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Robert Bluey back in December 2016. He also noted that out of state interests had come in to protest. 

“The idea that [the pipeline protest] is about the environment is bogus,” Cramer said. 

Trey Cox, who represented Energy Transfer in the case, said the verdict reaffirmed the First Amendment.

“Peaceful protest is an inherent American right. However, violent and destructive protest is unlawful and unacceptable,” he said outside the courthouse. In court, Cox had argued that Greenpeace USA had trained people to protest and provided assistance to them.

The victory comes as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up energy production in the United States.