Energy Transfer won its defamation suit against environmental group Greenpeace on March 19, with a North Dakota jury awarding the midstream company more than $660 million in damages.

Energy Transfer first filed suit against Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace International in federal court in 2017. When it was thrown out, the company filed again in state court in 2019. Energy Transfer claimed $300 million in damages from Greenpeace’s involvement in the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Bakken Shale.

Indigenous groups had led an opposition movement over the pipeline’s proximity to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Greenpeace maintains its actions at Standing Rock were peaceful, claiming that the lawsuit leveled against them was an attack on the First Amendment’s right to free speech and

a SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, meant to force an organization into expensive litigation.

Before the ruling, Greenpeace said the case had the potential to “establish dangerous new legal precedents that could hold any participant at protests responsible for the actions of others at those protests.”

Energy Transfer shot back. In a statement released in July 2024, Energy Transfer said its lawsuit was “not about free speech as they are trying to claim.

“It is about them not following the law. 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. Beyond that we will let our case speak for itself in February.”

The trial began on Feb. 25 and lasted three weeks. Greenpeace said it would appeal the jury’s decision.

The environmental group also has its own lawsuit against Energy Transfer pending in Holland. The lawsuit accuses the company of filing meritless claims against Greenpeace and seeks to recover damages from Energy Transfer’s legal actions against the group.

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