Judge slashes jury damages in Greenpeace case to $345 million
DICKINSON, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — A North Dakota judge has nearly halved the $660 million sum Greenpeace was ordered to pay the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline in March.
A nine-person jury had found the environmental group at fault for harming Energy Transfer during anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017, as well as for publishing false statements to harm the company’s reputation.
The jury’s award included more than $200 million of compensatory damages — money to address financial harms — plus about $400 million in punitive damages.
In a Wednesday order, Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion reduced the award after finding some of the jury’s damages had no legal basis, were duplicative or had exceeded statutory caps on punitive damages. The revised amount is about $345 million, according to Gion’s order.
Greenpeace was one of many activist groups that backed a movement to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline, which years ago drew thousands to rural south-central North Dakota to protest in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Energy Transfer filed suit against Greenpeace in 2019, accusing it of orchestrating violent attacks against the pipeline company during the demonstrations and of waging a misinformation campaign to sabotage its business.
Energy Transfer built the Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as DAPL, to move crude oil from wells in North Dakota to refineries farther south.
The case is against three Greenpeace-affiliated organizations: Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace Fund and the Netherlands-based Greenpeace International. All three Greenpeace organizations deny the allegations and have called the lawsuit a ploy to punish them for opposing the pipeline.
In wake of the verdict, Greenpeace asked Gion to reduce the award or throw it out entirely, arguing that the $660 million figure was unreasonable.
Gion on Wednesday partially granted that request. He eliminated awards related to the claim that Greenpeace had trespassed or encouraged trespassing on land owned by Energy Transfer, for example. He also threw out millions Greenpeace was ordered to award Energy Transfer on claims that the environmental group unlawfully seized and abused its property.
Gion left intact about $149 million in damages for Greenpeace’s alleged on-the-ground harms to Energy Transfer, including for trespassing and nuisance.
Gion found some of the awards handed down for defamation were duplicative and must be eliminated. He also concluded that the jury could not assess punitive damages for defamation.
In all, he reduced the jury’s original roughly $250 million award for defamation down to about $50 million.
He allowed $3.5 million in damages for the claim that Greenpeace engaged in a conspiracy to harm the Dakota Access Pipeline, about $19 million less than what the jury awarded. Gion awarded about $143 million in damages for the claim that Greenpeace interfered with Energy Transfer’s business.
The more than three-week trial earlier this year featured testimony from dozens of witnesses, including current and former Greenpeace employees, Indigenous activists, Energy Transfer representatives and law enforcement.
Gion’s memo reducing the award comes more than six months after the jury filed its verdict. He still has yet to enter a judgment in the case, according to the order.
Energy Transfer, in a Wednesday afternoon statement, said it planned to ask the North Dakota Supreme Court to reverse Gion’s revisions to the defamation and conspiracy awards.
Energy Transfer said it is still “pleased” that the judge let $345 million in damages stand, and that this verdict will “send a clear signal to those who choose to deliberately break the laws of the United States of America.”
Marco Simons, interim general counsel for Greenpeace’s USA affiliate and Greenpeace Fund, said once Gion enters a final judgment, they plan to ask for a new trial. If that request is unsuccessful, they will appeal.
“We are still analyzing the ruling, and while Judge Gion ruled in our favor in dismissing several claims – and from $667 million to roughly $345 million – we still believe that the remaining claims are legally unfounded,” Simons said in a statement.
Greenpeace International is also pursuing a separate lawsuit in the Netherlands that accuses Energy Transfer of weaponizing the U.S. legal system against the environmental group.
North Dakota Monitor reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.
