Central ND News

Paul Tice, an energy analyst and advisor, said "turn about is fair play" in the lawsuit that Energy Transfer filed against Greenpeace regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline protests from 2016. 

"Note that Energy Transfer's ND lawsuit against Dakota Access Pipeline activists is a state RICO case," Tice said in a post on X. "Treble damages of nearly $1 billion if the company were to win in court would deal a sharp financial blow to the anti-fossil fuel groups involved. Turnabout is fair play."

Energy Transfer Partners, the owner of the pipeline, has filed a $300 million lawsuit in state court against the environmental activist organization Greenpeace for its role in the protests. The suit says Greenpeace “should be held responsible for trying to disrupt pipeline construction and damage the company’s reputation and finances,” the Associated Press reported. 

That lawsuit, and an attempted settlement, led to the recent ouster of Greenpeace’s Executive Director Ebony Twilley Martin, said the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Greenpeace. Willem van Rijn, the group’s COO until April 2024, told E&E News that “Twilley Martin ‘advocated a way in which the organization would settle for a minor amount of money so that we could fight another day,’” and that the “board vehemently disagreed.”

Greenpeace last week launched a fundraising campaign to “raise awareness” of the lawsuit.

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests of 2016 and 2017 aimed to halt the construction of the reported $3.8 billion pipeline and “drew thousands of people to camp out” in Morton County, the Associated Press reported.

The protests resulted in 761 arrests, according to MPR News. Charges ranged from trespassing to more severe offenses. A significant number of those arrested were from out of state.

California resident and actress Shailene Woodley was arrested in October 2016. Other figures, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio, participated in the protests but were not arrested.

Certain days of the protests resulted in dozens of arrests, such as February 1, 2017, when 76 people were arrested after Morton County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Rob Keller said a “rogue group of protesters” had trespassed on private property.

The State of North Dakota is currently suing the federal government to “recoup $38 million it claims it spent policing the protest camps,” Source NM reported.

Attorneys for North Dakota reportedly argued in court records that the protests “resulted from an illegal occupation on federal lands and led to ‘frequent outbreaks of illegal, dangerous, unsanitary, and life-threatening activity on federal, state and private property.’”

North Dakota Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Seby said in court that the aftermath of the protests “required a four-day cleanup of the camp and 600 bins to remove 9.8 million pounds of trash,” according to MPR News.

The lawsuit filed by Energy Transfer Partners in Morton County District Court is currently pending.