Greenpeace has been ordered to pay the operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline $667 million for defamation and its role in organizing protests against the oil pipeline, a North Dakota jury ruled on Wednesday.
Environmentalists have warned that the verdict will be detrimental to environmental advocacy and will bankrupt the organization.
Texas-based Energy Transfer’s and its subsidiary Dakota Access’s lawsuit named three entities as defendants: Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA, and Greenpeace Fund Inc., the network’s funding arm. They were accused of defamation, trespass, and other acts.
Greenpeace USA must pay the majority of the damages, more than $400 million.
Protests surrounding the pipeline erupted in 2016 and 2017 by members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe feared that the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, which carries oil from western North Dakota to Illinois and crosses under the Missouri River, would pollute the reservation’s drinking water. Greenpeace’s lawyers said the environmental group assisted the tribe in organizing its protests.
Lawyers for Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of creating a scheme to delay the pipeline’s construction with its support of the protests, which in some cases turned violent. The company celebrated the jury’s decision on Wednesday.
“While we are pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, this win is really for the people 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,” Energy Transfer said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Greenpeace said it intends to appeal the jury’s decision, arguing it was targeted by a strategic lawsuit against public participation, which is defined as a defamation lawsuit brought forth by major companies with the intention of silencing critics. There are more than 30 states with laws to discourage this type of lawsuit, but North Dakota is not one of them.
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Greenpeace has filed an anti-intimidation lawsuit against Energy Transfer, invoking a European Union directive against SLAPP suits to recoup the money lost in this case.
“The fight against Big Oil is not over today,” Greenpeace International general counsel Kristin Casper said. “We know that the law and the truth are on our side.”
