The multi-million dollar fine that aims to make Greenpeace disappear

BarcelonaThe environmental organization Greenpeace is immersed in a legal battle that could lead to its financial "bankruptcy." The organization claims it has been orchestrated to make it disappear, at least in the United States, and silence its struggle. This is the lawsuit filed by the American oil company Energy Transfer against the protest actions Greenpeace—along with other organizations—has carried out for almost a decade against a gas pipeline in North Dakota that crossed ecologically valuable Indigenous lands. Now, a North Dakota jury has found Greenpeace liable for defamation and ordered it to pay more than $660 million (€605 million) to the oil company.

Greenpeace has already announced it will appeal the decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court. Last month, Greenpeace also filed a lawsuit in a court in Amsterdam (where it has its international headquarters) seeking to invoke the European Union (EU) anti-SLAPP directive. The organization believes the Energy Transfer lawsuit is a SLAPP, short for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. "Like all SLAPPs, the Energy Transfer lawsuit is an attempt to bury social organizations and their activists in a mountain of legal fees, bankrupt them, and ultimately silence dissent, suppress free speech, and limit the power of the people. But we won't make it easy for them: we won't go easy on ourselves. Energy Transfer hasn't heard our last word in this fight yet." "We will not back down, we will not be silenced," Greenpeace International's general counsel, Kristin Casper, also stated.

When contacted by this newspaper, Greenpeace is unclear as to whether the fine should be enforced immediately or if the appeal will halt it. The verdict was made public a few hours ago and the organization is "debating the response strategy," Javier Raboso, campaigns director for Greenpeace Spain, told ARA. If the fine has to be paid, the cost will be shared between the two US subsidiaries (Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund Inc. in Washington) and Greenpeace International. "That could mean the disappearance of Greenpeace in the United States," Raboso assures, but points out that the organization at the international level—it is present in 55 countries—would not disappear. The organization trusts that the process opened in the Netherlands could also help, because just last year the EU approved a directive "against these abusive lawsuits that are quite common against social organizations and against journalists, in which large corporations use charges of defamation and insults, but they do not prioritize victory," explains Raboso.

The executive director of the American subsidiaries, Sushsma Raman, has warned of the danger that this ruling represents "for the future of the First Amendment," which protects freedom of expression in the United States. "This case should alarm everyone, regardless of political leanings, because it is part of a renewed effort by corporations to use the courts as a weapon and silence dissent" and "destroy the right to peaceful protest." Raboso emphasizes, in fact, that the company that sued them "is one of the major donors to Donald Trump's campaign."

Energy Transfer, based in Texas, also accused Greenpeace of trespass, nuisance and civil conspiracy for the demonstrations almost a decade ago against the Dakota Access Pipeline. A nine-person jury in a courtroom in Mandan, about 100 miles from where the protests took place, deliberated for two days and reached a guilty verdict Wednesday night. Energy Transfer attorney Trey Cox accuses the environmental organization of causing damages to the company between $265 million and $340 million, and had asked the jury for that amount plus additional damages.

The Standing Rock protest didn't stop the pipeline.

Protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was intended to be built through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, drew up to 10,000 people at their peak. They began in 2016 and ended in February 2017, a month after Donald Trump first took office. The National Guard and police evicted the protesters, who had set up camp near Standing Rock, a sacred site for the Sioux, to block the passage of the pipeline's machinery.

But the protests failed to stop construction of the pipeline, which began in 2017, covering 1,886 kilometers. However, the construction company, Energy Transfer, still lacks a key permit to operate under Lake Oahe in South Dakota, and local tribes have pushed for a thorough environmental review of the project. The protest that led to the lawsuit included members of more than 200 Native American tribes supporting the Sioux, hundreds of US military veterans, actors and political leaders, and even the current US Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Greenpeace argued during the trial that the demonstrations were led by local Indigenous leaders and not by the environmental organization, which only helped support "a nonviolent direct action training." "Underlying the lawsuit is the prevailing racism because it ignores the fact that the demonstrations were led by the Sioux community," says Raboso.

The trial in North Dakota lasted three weeks. In a video statement, Energy Transfer co-founder and chairman of the board, Kelcy Warren, accused Greenpeace of creating "a totally false narrative" about his company. According to Energy Transfer's lawyer, the organization with more than 50 years of environmental history used the protest to "promote its own selfish policy."