Kristin Casper, center, general counsel for Greenpeace International, and other representatives for Greenpeace speak to the media March 19, 2025, outside the Morton County Courthouse. (Amy Dalrymple/North Dakota Monitor)
MANDAN, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — A North Dakota judge officially ordered Greenpeace to pay $345 million to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline following a nearly yearlong tug-of-war over a Morton County jury’s verdict.
The jury in March 2025 originally ordered Greenpeace to pay Energy Transfer about $667 million, finding the environmental group at fault for harming the company during anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 and for publishing false statements that harmed the company’s reputation. Greenpeace denies these allegations and says Energy Transfer’s lawsuit is a veiled attempt to punish the environmental group for supporting the demonstrations.
Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion in October slashed the jury’s award to $345 million, though he didn’t finalize the amount until Friday.
The final judgment also orders Greenpeace to pay 11% interest on the sum, starting from March 19, the date the jury announced its verdict, until the full amount is paid.
Greenpeace said in a Friday news release it expects in the short-term to request a new trial or an amendment to Gion’s judgment.
Later, Greenpeace will have the option of appealing the decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
“This is a setback, but the movement to defend people and the planet has always faced setbacks and resistance, and Energy Transfer will fail in its goal of silencing its critics,” Marco Simons, interim general counsel for Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund, said in the announcement.
Energy Transfer was not immediately available for comment on Friday.
In the aftermath of the jury’s verdict, Greenpeace asked Gion to completely eliminate or at least reduce the $667 million award, alleging it exceeded statutory caps on damages and that the verdict contained inconsistencies. Gion agreed with some of those claims when he cut the sum by roughly half.
Energy Transfer previously indicated that it would ask the North Dakota Supreme Court to reverse Gion’s reduction of the damages.
The company at the time said it was still “pleased” that the judge left $345 million of the award intact and that the verdict would “send a clear signal to those who choose to deliberately break the laws of the United States of America.”
The judgment comes roughly seven years after Energy Transfer’s suit was originally filed.
The company developed the Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as DAPL, to carry crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
Greenpeace was one of many activist groups that participated in a movement to halt the pipeline’s construction. Those protests were started by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and ultimately drew thousands to rural south-central North Dakota to demonstrate.
Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace in Morton County in 2019, accusing it of organizing violent attacks against the pipeline company during the protests and of waging a misinformation campaign to sabotage its business. The lawsuit is against three separate organizations affiliated with Greenpeace — Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace Fund and Greenpeace International.
The more than three-week trial in early 2025 featured dozens of witnesses, including current and former Greenpeace employees, Indigenous activists, Energy Transfer representatives and law enforcement.
Witnesses for Greenpeace during the trial said the environmental group only ever played a small role in the protests. Greenpeace maintains it only had six employees visit the protest camps, and that all worked for Greenpeace USA, not Greenpeace Fund or Greenpeace International.
The jury found Greenpeace USA liable for almost all claims. It did not find Greenpeace International and Greenpeace Fund responsible for the alleged on-the-ground harms committed by protesters, but did find those entities liable for defamation and interfering with Energy Transfer’s business. It also found Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace International liable for conspiracy.
Greenpeace International has filed a separate lawsuit against Energy Transfer in the Netherlands that accuses the company of weaponizing the U.S. legal system against the environmental group.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher,” Mads Christensen, executive director of the Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, said in the Friday announcement.Energy Transfer asked Gion to halt the Netherlands lawsuit while the North Dakota case is still pending, which the judge denied. Energy Transfer appealed that decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which has yet to make a decision on the matter.
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