A North Dakota judge said he will order Greenpeace entities to pay damages expected to total $345 million in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline nearly a decade ago, setting up appeals from both sides. In court papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion said he would sign an order requiring several Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to Energy Transfer, according to the Associated Press report.
Gion set the amount at $345 million last year when he reduced a jury’s damages by about half, and his latest filing did not specify a final amount. The long-awaited order is expected to launch an appeal process in the North Dakota Supreme Court from both Energy Transfer and the Greenpeace entities.
The lawsuit stems from the pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017, when thousands of people demonstrated and camped near the project’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe and other opponents long opposed the pipeline, describing it as a threat to water supplies.
Last year, a nine-person jury found Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. liable on defamation and other claims brought by Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access. The jury found Greenpeace USA liable on all counts, including conspiracy, trespass, nuisance and tortious interference, while the other two entities were found liable for some of the claims.
The jury assessed damages totaling $666.9 million, divided among the three Greenpeace organizations before Gion reduced the judgment. Greenpeace USA’s share of that jury award was $404 million, AP reported.
Energy Transfer said it intends to appeal the reduced damages and called the original jury findings and damages “lawful and just.” AP said it emailed the company for comment on the judge’s Tuesday action.
Greenpeace declined to comment on the Tuesday filing. Greenpeace USA interim general counsel Marco Simons reiterated that Greenpeace USA could not afford the judgment, arguing that as “mid-sized nonprofits” the organizations would not be able to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages.
In a late-2024 financial filing cited by AP, Greenpeace USA said it does 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 Dec. 31, 2024.
Simons said the case is far from over and expressed optimism about the planned appeal. He said the “These claims never should have reached a jury,” and pointed to possible legal grounds for appeal including “a lack of evidence to support key findings” and “valid concerns about the possibility of ensuring fairness.”
Greenpeace has said the lawsuit is intended to use the courts to silence activists and chill First Amendment rights. The pipeline company has said the case is about Greenpeace allegedly not following the law, not free speech.
At trial, Energy Transfer’s attorney said Greenpeace orchestrated plans to stop the pipeline’s construction, including organizing protesters, sending blockade supplies and making untrue statements about the project. Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities said there was no evidence for Energy Transfer’s claims and said Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests, and that the organizations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer’s delays in construction or refinancing.