Greenpeace ordered to pay over $660M for Dakota pipeline protests

Environmental Group Greenpes was ordered on Wednesday to pay millions of dollars to the Texas -based pipeline company for its role in protesting the construction of the Dakota Axis pipeline in North Dakota.

According to the Greenpace calculation, on Wednesday, a jury of nine people at the Morton County Court House in South Central North Dakota received more than $ 660 million in energy transfer and access to its subsidiary Dakota. The company accused the Parents Group Greenpiece International, and the Funding Arm Greenpesis Fund Inc., accusing them of disrupting the pipeline and paying protesters to pay misinformation about the controversial project.

The decision – which included disgrace to notoriety, misconduct and civilian conspiracy – came out after two days of talks. According to Reuters, the jury awarded more than $ 400 million to be punished, which aims to punish the defendants for their behavior.

Greenpes said he intends to appeal the decision, and calls for the matter “free speech and an attempt to silence peaceful protests”. The group has maintained that it played a slight role in the protests near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation just a decade ago.

Energy Transfer said the decision was “a victory for all legal Americans who understand the difference between free speech and the right to break the law.”

The company said in a statement to the USA Today, “When we are happy that Greenpace has been held accountable for their actions against us, but this win is really for the people of Mandan and the entire North Dakota who, through Greenpace, to provide funds and train them daily through the protests.”

“We will not back down, we will not be silenced”.

The energy transfer first filed a case against Greenpes in 2017, accusing the group of influencing and notoriously for the purpose of stopping the Dakota Access pipeline. The company argued that the group’s actions and advertising against the construction of the pipeline caused billions of dollars in losses.

After a federal court dismissed the case in 2019, the energy transfer filed a defamation case in the state court. The company initially tried Million 300 million, saying that Greenpess’s intervention had damaged its “critical business and financial relations”.

The Environmental Group has previously said that the loss of energy transfer damage will threaten to bankrupt the group of the group in the United States on Wednesday, Greenpes has described the case as one of the largest strategic cases filed against the “public participation (SLApp).”

Critics have presented these cases to silence or impose important lawsuits of legalism by major corporations. According to the Reporters Committee for Press Committee for the freedom of the press, by January, 35 states and Columbia district have anti -slip rules. But North Dakota has no anti -slip rules.

Last month, Greenpiece International filed a lawsuit in the Dutch court against the transfer of energy, saying it was the first test of a new European law to stop the trial to silence rights workers.

“Energy transfer has not heard the last of us in this fight. We are launching our anti -slip trial against energy transfer attacks on free speech and peaceful protests,” Greenpesis International’s General Counsel Casper said in a statement. “We will see energy transfer to court this July in Amsterdam. We will not back down, we will not be silenced.”

Dakota access pipeline protests

Tribal advocacy groups and environmental workers have strongly opposed the construction of the Dakota Accepse pipeline, and claims that it is aided by the use of foam fuel in global warming, threatens water supply, and interferes with ancestral lands.

The project began in 2016 and was completed next year. The pipeline carrys about 40 % of the oil manufactured in the Bacon region of North Dakota. The protest against the project began in April 2016 and ended in February 2017 when authorities cleared the last hold out from the protest camp.

Experts in civil rights and environmental law have raised concerns over Wednesday’s decision. “There is no doubt that the decision will affect the organizers of the Greenpace and future protest,” said Civil Rights Attorney VJ James Desimon.

“Perhaps the most important message is that when using the rights of our assembly and freedom of speech, the importance of peaceful protest should be addressed,” said in a statement. “We should not forget that the protest was started by the Native Americans who have the right to worry about water on their land.”

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) said it “is” committed to defending the constitutional right of the protest, especially when the indigenous -led operations are talked about in defense of life, land and health. “

“The decision against Greenpace not only represents the attack on free speech and protest rights, but also represents an independent attack on the independent rights of the standing rock and all the indigenous people,” said Rebecca Brown, the president and CEO of CEL.

Partnership: Trever Hughes, USA Today. William Petrosky, Des register; Reuters

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