Greenpeace must pay $660m to oil company over pipeline protests, jury says

In a defamation lawsuit brought by an oil pipeline operator Energy Transfer, a jury in the United States ordered Greenpeace to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, which raises serious free speech concerns.

In one of the largest anti-fossil fuel protests in US history, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led a protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which came almost a decade after the ruling was announced.

In response to allegations of trespass, nuisance, conspiracy, and deprivation of property access, the jury in North Dakota determined that three Greenpeace organizations had been awarded more than $ 60 million in damages.

Energy Transfer, a $64 billion Texas-based business, praised the ruling and denied trying to censor speech.

The jury and the judge expressed gratitude to the jury and the judge for their tireless efforts to this trial, the company said in a statement.

“While we’re happy that Greenpeace will be held accountable for their actions, this victory is really for the people of Mandan and the rest of North Dakota, who had to endure the harassment and disturbances that the protesters, who were funded and trained by Greenpeace, caused.”

In the trial, which started in late February, the nine-person jury in Mandan, North Dakota, deliberated for two days before concluding in favor of Energy Transfer on the majority of the counts.

However, a group of attorneys who conducted the trial monitoring, dubbed the Trial Monitoring Committee, claimed that many of the jurors were connected to the fossil fuel industry.

Following jury selection, the committee stated in a statement that the majority of the jurors in the case have ties to the oil and gas industry and some have openly acknowledged that they were not impartial.

The decision will be challenged by Greenpeace. Energy Transfer is being sued by Greenpeace International in the Netherlands for allegedly bringing nuisance lawsuits to halt dissent. July 2 is the scheduled date for a hearing in that case.

According to Kristin Casper, Greenpeace International General Counsel, “The fight against big oil is not over.”

“We are aware that our side is protected by the law and the truth,” he said.

Standing Rock’s “water protectors” are known as the “water protectors.”

The case against Greenpeace against Energy Transfer dates back to protests in North Dakota almost ten years ago.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe called themselves “water protectors” when they organized a protest camp along the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline route in April 2016.

The camp lasted for more than a year, drawing in support from various activists, including Greenpeace, and even hundreds of US Army veterans, first from other indigenous people in the nation.

The Sioux and their supporters remained in place despite the cold conditions that had begun and hundreds of police patrolled the protests with violent arrests that also targeted journalists.

In the final arguments, Energy Transfer’s lead attorney Trey Cox claimed that Greenpeace had “exploitated” the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in order to advance its anti-fossil fuel agenda.

However, Greenpeace maintains that Native Americans only played a small, peaceful role in the movement.

The notion that Greenpeace organized the protests is “paternalistic,” according to one Lakota Times witness in the trial, according to one Lakota Organizer, Nick Tilsen.

The pipeline, which was constructed to transport fracked crude oil to refineries and onto global markets, was operational in 2017 despite the protests.

Energy Transfer, however, continued to pursue Greenpeace in court after initially requesting $ 300 million in damages from a federal court, which was rejected.

The state courts of North Dakota, one of the few US states without any legal protections against the so-called “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation” (SLAPP), then adopted its legal strategy.

“Drill, baby drill”

With his campaign slogan of “drill, baby drill,” President Donald Trump promises to expand the US’s fossil fuel industry, including eliminating air and water protections, on Wednesday’s verdict is another win for the industry.

Kelcy Warren, a major donor to Energy Transfer and Energy Transfer, was frequently open about his motives throughout the years-long legal battle.

He claimed in interviews that his “primary objective” in suing Greenpeace was to “send a message” rather than just receive financial compensation.

Warren even went so far as to claim that “activists should be taken out of the gene pool.”

The controversy centers on a textbook SLAPP case that seeks to silence opposition and drain resources.

The Trump administration’s attempt to instill a wider crackdown on freedom of expression is also at play here.

Author and journalist Naomi Klein argued in a response to the verdict on Wednesday that “attacks on protest and freedoms” involving “climate, Palestine, labor, migrant, trans, and reproductive rights” should be viewed as related.

According to Klein, “Fossil fuel companies should be required to pay the public trillions in damages for the costs of planetary arson.”

Meanwhile, climate change is already causing an unprecedented number of hurricanes and fires to occur in the US and other countries, including North Carolina’s unprecedented inland hurricane and recent fires in California.

Source: Aljazeera