Energy Transfer filed the colossal lawsuit in 2019, accusing Greenpeace of providing resources, including supplies, intel and training, to encourage Dakota Access Pipeline protesters to commit criminal acts to stop construction of the project. The company also claims that Greenpeace intentionally spread misinformation about the pipeline to tarnish its reputation with banks.
“These are the facts, not the fake news of the Greenpeace propaganda machine,” Trey Cox, the lead attorney representing Energy Transfer, said in a press conference outside the Morton County Courthouse after the verdict.
Energy Transfer representatives believe protesting is an “inherent American right” but that Greenpeace’s actions were “unacceptable,” Cox continued.
Greenpeace USA, which the jury ordered to pay more than $400 million of the damages, has previously said the lawsuit threatened to bankrupt the organization.
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“Today, justice has been done with Greenpeace and its radical environmentalist buddies who encouraged this destructive behavior during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests with their defamatory and false claims about the pipeline,” U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said. “They can think twice now about doing it again.”
Greenpeace recently filed suit against Energy Transfer in the Netherlands, asking a court to find that the company’s legal challenge in Morton County violated the environmental group’s rights and to award it damages.
That case is believed to be the first lawsuit filed under a new European Union directive intended to shield organizations against free speech attacks.
