In the opening week of the high-profile trial against Greenpeace in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Energy Transfer over the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, the outlook appears unfavorable for the defense. In a petition filed with North Dakota’s Supreme Court, Greenpeace’s lawyers argued that the trial should be moved outside of Morton County, claiming that the local jury is not impartial. The protests, which took place in 2016 and 2017 and attracted international attention, disrupted daily life in Morton County and at times led to violent clashes. Energy Transfer first filed the lawsuit in 2019, accusing Greenpeace of playing a central role in the protests, which they claim delayed pipeline construction, attacked workers and equipment, and defamed Energy Transfer. Greenpeace, on the other hand, asserts that it played only a minor role in the protests and promotes nonviolence. If Greenpeace loses the lawsuit, a judgment could reach hundreds of millions of dollars and possibly force it to halt operations in the United States. The motion argued that negative articles about the protests that were mailed to Morton County residents in recent months may have been sent by Energy Transfer or those closely tied to the company. As of now, the court has not responded to the petition, and the trial is scheduled to last five weeks, having already begun at the courthouse in Mandan, N.D.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/climate/greenpeace-energy-transfer-dakota-access-pipeline-lawsuit.html