Greenpeace ordered to pay energy company nearly $350 million after judge reduces jury award
Greenpeace protest organized in Rome on February 24, 2025, PHOTO: Marco Di Gianvito-ZUMA Press Wire / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
A US judge on Wednesday nearly halved the $667 million in damages awarded by a jury against environmental group Greenpeace over its role in protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Reuters reports.
Judge James Gion of the state of North Dakota ruled that the amount Greenpeace owes Energy Transfer, a crude oil and gas carrier, must be limited to $345 million, after finding that some of the compensation was improper or excessive.
Greenpeace's acting general counsel Marco Simons said his organization “continues to believe the remaining allegations have no legal basis” and that the case “has always been about a wealthy corporation using the legal system to intimidate its critics and silence protesters who threaten its business model.”
Spokesmen and a lawyer for Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the court's decision.
The Dakota Access pipeline project, located near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, began in 2016 and was completed in 2017.
Greenpeace, at the center of a huge scandal in the US
Construction of the pipeline, which currently carries about 40 percent of the oil produced in North Dakota's Bakken region, has been met with vehement protests from environmental organizations and indigenous activist groups, who have argued that the project could contaminate local water supplies and worsen climate change.
The subject was one that created deep divisions in the US along ideological lines, holding the front page of American newspapers. He even became a topic of debate during the 2016 US election campaign, when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to win his first presidential term.
Texas-based Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace in 2017 in federal court in North Dakota, accusing it of spreading false information about the project and paying protesters to disrupt construction. The North Dakota jury returned the verdict in March, including damages for defamation, trespass and conspiracy.
In February this year, Greenpeace in turn filed a lawsuit against Energy Transfer in the Netherlands under a European law designed to limit abusive legal actions against activists. The process is still ongoing.
