Judge orders Greenpeace to pay $345m over Dakota Access pipeline protest | North Dakota
A North Dakota judge said he will order Greenpeace to pay damages expected to total $345 million in connection with protests against the Dakota Access pipeline that took place nearly a decade ago, an amount the environmental group claims it cannot pay.
In court papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion said he would sign an order requiring several Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to the pipeline company Energy Transfer. He set that amount at $345 million last year in a ruling that roughly halved the jury’s damages, but his latest filing does not specify a final amount.
The long-awaited order is expected to launch an appeal process to the North Dakota Supreme Court on both sides.
Last year, a nine-person jury found Greenpeace International, Netherlands-based Greenpeace USA, and finance company Greenpeace Fund Inc liable for defamation and other claims filed by Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access.
The jury found Greenpeace USA liable on all counts, including conspiracy, trespass, nuisance and tortious interference. The other two entities were found liable for some of the claims.
The lawsuit stems from protests against the pipeline in 2016 and 2017, when thousands of people demonstrated and camped near the project’s planned Missouri River crossing, upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, seeing it as a threat to its water supply.
The damages totaled $666.9 million, divided into different amounts between the three Greenpeace organizations before the judge reduced the judgment. Greenpeace USA’s share of this judgment amounts to $404 million.
Energy Transfer previously stated its intention to appeal the reduction of damages, calling the jury’s initial findings and damages “lawful and just.” The Associated Press contacted the company for comment on the judge’s action Tuesday.
In a financial filing late last year, Greenpeace USA said it did not have the money to pay the $404 million ordered by the jury “or to continue normal operations if the judgment is enforced.” The group said it had cash and cash equivalents of $1.4 million and total assets of $23 million as of December 31, 2024.
Greenpeace declined to comment on the judge’s filing, but Greenpeace USA’s acting general counsel Marco Simons reiterated that the organization could not afford the ruling.
“As a mid-sized nonprofit, it was always clear that we would not have the ability to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages,” Simons said Wednesday.
Simons added that the case is far from over and expressed optimism about the group’s planned appeal.
“These claims should never have reached a jury, and there are many possible legal grounds for appeal – including lack of evidence to support the key findings and well-founded concerns about whether fairness can be ensured,” Simons said.
Greenpeace said the lawsuit aims to use the courts to silence activists and critics and cripple First Amendment rights. The pipeline company said the lawsuit was about Greenpeace’s failure to comply with the law, not about free speech.
At trial, an attorney for Energy Transfer said Greenpeace orchestrated plans to stop construction of the pipeline, including organizing protesters, sending blockade supplies and making false claims about the project.
Lawyers for the Greenpeace entities said there was no evidence for the oil company’s claims, that Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests, and that the organizations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer’s construction or refinancing delays.
