Kristin Casper, center, general counsel for Greenpeace International. (Amy Dalrymple/North Dakota Monitor)
(. North Dakota Monitor) – A Morton County jury ordered Greenpeace to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline, finding that the environmental group incited illegal behavior by anti-pipeline protesters and defamed the company.
The nine-person jury delivered a verdict in favor of Energy Transfer on most counts, awarding more than $660 million in damages to Energy Transfer and Dakota Access LLC.
The case centers on Greenpeace’s involvement in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. The demonstrations were started by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which views the project as a pollution threat and imposition onto Native land. Thousands of protesters camped for months north of the Standing Rock Reservation, near where the pipeline crosses underneath the Missouri River in Morton County.
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.
