A jury in North Dakota concluded on Wednesday that environmental activist group Greenpeace is liable for more than $660 million in damages over their protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project, filed a lawsuit against Greenpeace in 2019, claiming the group caused financial loss through damaged property and lost revenues, according to a report from CNN.
The nine-member jury took two days to reach a verdict following a trial that lasted for three weeks.
Greenpeace, which will appeal the $660 million ruling, has said the payout could bankrupt them.
Trey Cox, an attorney for American company Energy Transfer, accused Greenpeace during the trial of paying outside protesters to enter the area.
He also asserted that the organization defamed the energy company.
“Today, the jury delivered a resounding verdict, declaring Greenpeace’s actions wrong, unlawful, and unacceptable by societal standards. It is a day of reckoning and accountability for Greenpeace,” Cox remarked in a statement, per CNN.
“This verdict serves as a powerful affirmation of the First Amendment,” the lawyer added. “Peaceful protest is an inherent American right; however, violent and destructive protest is unlawful and unacceptable.”
Energy Transfer added in a statement to Fox News that the decision was a victory for “Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law.”
Did the jury get this one right?
“While we are pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, this win is really for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace,” the company remarked.
Greenpeace has meanwhile framed the ruling as an attack on free expression that could chill speech from climate change activists.
“We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech,” Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal advisor for Greenpeace USA, said in a statement, according to CNN.
Greenpeace has also filed a lawsuit against Energy Transfer in the Netherlands in an attempt to recover losses from the lawsuits.
Kristin Casper, Greenpeace International’s general council, said in a statement that “the fight against Big Oil isn’t over today, and we know that the truth and the law are on our side.”
“Greenpeace International will continue to campaign for a green and peaceful future,” she vowed. “Energy Transfer hasn’t heard the last of us in this fight.”
Greenpeace was involved in protests back in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline, with thousands of environmental activists camping for several months near the point where the pipeline went under the Missouri River, per Fox News.
The pipeline project today transfers roughly 5 percent of daily oil production in the United States.
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