Key Takeaways
A North Dakota jury has awarded pipeline company Energy Transfer over $660 million, more than twice as much as the company was asking for, in damages from Greenpeace for its role in protests that delayed construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline nearly a decade ago.
The pipeline is over 1,000 miles long and moves oil from the Bakken, North Dakota, oil fields to refineries in the Midwest at half the cost and more safely than surface transportation.
The jury found that anti-fuel advocates, working with a local tribe, were assisted by Greenpeace in mischaracterizing the pipeline’s relative costs, benefits, and environmental impacts.
While Greenpeace had declared that a $300 million judgment would bankrupt it, it intends to appeal the decision in North Dakota and is countersuing in the European Union.
Energy Transfer said that, while it supported peaceful protests, it could not support the vandalism and destructive protests that characterized the Dakota Access pipeline events.
A jury in North Dakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million for its role in protests against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The North Dakota jury awarded the damages to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer, which had sued three Greenpeace entities — two in the United States and one based in Amsterdam — over its role in protests nearly a decade ago against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The jury awarded Energy Transfer far more than Energy Transfer’s claimed damages, which were in the range of $300 million and, according to Greenpeace, would be enough to put it out of business in the United States.
The Dakota Access Pipeline was completed at a cost of $3.8 billion and has been transporting oil since June 2017. The pipeline was fundamental to advancing North Dakota’s oil production because it served as a low-cost and efficient means of moving Bakken oil to refineries in the Midwest. The 1,172-mile line carries North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Patoka, Illinois. The alternative of using rail would at least double the cost of transporting the oil.
Most of the protests against the pipeline focused on a small section south of Bismarck, North Dakota, that crosses under a reservoir on the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe claims it was not adequately consulted in the federal planning process, that construction crosses sacred sites, and that the pipeline poses a pollution risk to its water supply. Energy Transfer disputed those assertions and was able to convince a jury based on the record they had established during the permitting process.
The protests drew national attention and thousands of people to monthslong encampments in 2016 and 2017, delaying the construction of the pipeline. Included among those was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who attributes her entry into politics and her run for Congress to her experience there. Those protests erupted into acts of vandalism and violence at times, alienating people in the surrounding community in the Bismarck-Mandan area. Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of funding and supporting the attacks and protests that delayed the pipeline’s construction, damaged property, raised costs, and harmed Energy Transfer’s reputation, for which the jury awarded over 660 million in damages. Greenpeace says it will appeal the verdict to the North Dakota Supreme Court and file a separate countersuit in the European Union.
Greenpeace International filed a claim against Energy Transfer in a Dutch court using the European Union’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) legislation that went into effect in May 2024, seeking to recover the damages and costs the organization has incurred as a result of the company’s lawsuits. The trial will begin in July and is the first test of the EU’s anti-SLAPP directive. More than 400 environmental and other groups signed an open letter to Energy Transfer expressing solidarity with Greenpeace. The letter states, “We will not allow lawsuits like this one to stop us from advocating for a just, green and peaceful future.”
Energy Transfer is one of the largest pipeline companies in the country. Founded in 1996 with 20 employees and 200 miles of natural gas pipelines, it now employs 11,000 and owns and operates over 125,000 miles of pipelines and related facilities.
Conclusion
A North Dakota jury awarded Energy Transfer over $660 million for damages resulting from protests and violence during the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, which carries oil from the oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois. Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of funding and supporting attacks and protests that delayed the pipeline’s construction, raised costs, and harmed Energy Transfer’s reputation. Greenpeace said the penalty would likely force it to close its U.S. operations. It intends to appeal the verdict and damages to the North Dakota Supreme Court and has filed a suit in Europe using the EU’s anti-SLAPP legislation. Trey Cox, Energy Transfer’s attorney, said of the North Dakota verdict, “This verdict is a powerful affirmation of the First Amendment. Peaceful protest is an inherent American right; however, violent and destructive protest is unlawful and unacceptable.”
