MANDAN, N.D. — A Texas pipeline company’s lawsuit seeking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace was set to advance with opening statements Wednesday in a trial the environmental organization calls an effort to silence critics of the oil industry.
Jury selection took place earlier in the week and the estimated five-week trial now will get underway in Mandan, North Dakota.
The lawsuit stems from protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access oil pipeline and its controversial Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline as a risk to its water supply. The pipeline was completed in 2017.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access allege trespass, nuisance, defamation and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International and its American branch, Greenpeace USA. The lawsuit also names the group’s funding arm, Greenpeace Fund Inc.
The lawsuit alleges Greenpeace tried to delay construction of the pipeline, defamed the companies behind it, and coordinated trespassing, vandalism and violence by pipeline protesters.
The Greenpeace defendants deny the allegations.
Greenpeace says the lawsuit is going after $300 million, citing a figure from a previous federal case. The lawsuit complaint asks for damages in an amount to be proved at trial.
Greenpeace representatives say the case is an example of corporations abusing the legal system to go after critics and is a critical test of free speech and protest rights.
“We are trying to bring visibility around a fight that will have major implications for the future of the First Amendment because those who bring these types of lawsuits, they want these fights to remain silent and invisible,” said Senior Legal Adviser Deepa Padmanabha.
The lawsuit is about Greenpeace not following the law, not about free speech, Energy Transfer spokesperson Vicki Granado has said previously.
“We support the rights of all Americans to express their opinions and lawfully protest. However, when it is not done in accordance with our laws, we have a legal system to deal with that,” she said.
The company filed a similar case in federal court in 2017, which a judge dismissed in 2019. Energy Transfer subsequently filed the lawsuit now at trial in state court.
