A North Dakota jury has ruled that Greenpeace must pay $660 million in damages to pipeline major Energy Transfer after the group was found guilty of defamation, conspiracy, and physical damage to the Dakota Access pipeline.
“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 comments on the verdict, as quoted by The Hill.
“This is the end of a chapter, but not the end of our fight,” the interim executive director of Greenpeace USA, Sushma Raman said. “Energy Transfer knows we don’t have $660 million. They want our silence, not our money.” The Hill notes that paying the compensation could bankrupt the environmentalist organization.
The Dakota Access pipeline, which began operation in 2017, ignited perhaps the largest and most public protests from environmentalists. There were camps on the site of a section of the pipeline, violent clashes with the police, arrests, and a cleanup bill of $38 million after the end of the protests.
Although the 570,000-bpd pipeline did begin full operation in 2021, it remained the target of relentless attacks from the environmentalist camp who cited the risk of oil spills and violation of Tribal lands as reasons for their insistence to shut down the infrastructure. The attacks led to additional environmental reviews into the safety of the pipeline and its legality.
The lawsuit against Greenpeace began in 2017 when Energy Transfer took the matter to a federal court. That court dismissed the case, so Energy Transfer went to a North Dakota court, which took three weeks to rule on the issue.
Source: By Irina Slav from Oilprice.com