Judge Seeks $345M Penalty Against Greenpeace Over Protests | EUROtoday

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota choose has mentioned he’ll order Greenpeace to pay damages anticipated to whole $345 million in reference to protests towards the Dakota Access oil pipeline from almost a decade in the past, a determine the environmental group contends it can not pay.

In court docket papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion mentioned he would signal an order requiring a number of Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to pipeline firm Energy Transfer. He set that quantity at $345 million final 12 months in a call that diminished a jury’s damages by about half, however his newest submitting didn’t specify a remaining quantity.

The long-awaited order is anticipated to launch an attraction course of within the North Dakota Supreme Court from each side.

Last 12 months, a nine-person jury discovered Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. chargeable for defamation and different claims introduced by Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access.

The jury discovered Greenpeace USA liable on all counts, together with conspiracy, trespass, nuisance and tortious interference. The different two entities had been discovered chargeable for a number of the claims.

The lawsuit stems from the pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017, when hundreds of individuals demonstrated and camped close to the undertaking’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe has lengthy opposed the pipeline as a menace to its water provide.

Damages totaled $666.9 million, divided in numerous quantities among the many three Greenpeace organizations earlier than the choose diminished the judgment. Greenpeace USA’s share of that judgment was $404 million.

Energy Transfer beforehand mentioned it intends to attraction the diminished damages, calling the unique jury findings and damages “lawful and just.” The Associated Press emailed the corporate for touch upon the choose’s Tuesday motion.

In a monetary submitting made late final 12 months, Greenpeace USA mentioned it doesn’t have the cash to pay the $404 million ordered by the jury “or to continue normal operations if the judgment is enforced.” The group mentioned it had money and money equivalents of $1.4 million and whole belongings of $23 million as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Greenpeace declined to touch upon the choose’s Tuesday submitting, however Greenpeace USA interim normal counsel Marco Simons reiterated that the group couldn’t afford the judgment.

“As mid-sized nonprofits, it has always been clear that we would not have the ability to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages,” Simons mentioned Wednesday.

Simons added that the case is way from over and expressed optimism concerning the group’s deliberate attraction.

“These claims never should have reached a jury, and there are many possible legal grounds for appeal – including a lack of evidence to support key findings and valid concerns about the possibility of ensuring fairness,” Simons mentioned.

Greenpeace has mentioned the lawsuit is supposed to make use of the courts to silence activists and critics and chill First Amendment rights. The pipeline firm has mentioned the lawsuit is about Greenpeace not following the legislation, not free speech.

At trial, an legal professional for Energy Transfer mentioned Greenpeace orchestrated plans to cease the pipeline’s building, together with organizing protesters, sending blockade provides and making unfaithful statements concerning the undertaking.

Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities mentioned there was no proof to the corporate’s claims and that Greenpeace staff had little or no involvement within the protests and the organizations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer’s delays in building or refinancing.