A popular jury of the Morton County Court, in North Dakota (United States), has declared Greenpeace responsible for defamation, search, discomfort, civil conspiracy and other claims. The ruling is produced in a lawsuit filed by the company of Pipelines Energy Transfer of 2016 and 2017 for the jury condemns Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund to pay more than 660 million dollars (605 million euros) of compensation to Energy Transfer and its Dakota Access filial.
The ruling of the jury of nine members is a tremendous financial blow to the environmental organization, which had warned that its US subsidiaries would be dedicated to bankruptcy in case of losing their trial. Even when a 300 million figure was handled in the demand, which has finally been exceeded, in the United States. The organization plans to resort to the failure.
The organization is carrying out a more exhaustive assessment of the sentence, but Kristin Casper, general counselor of Greenpeace International, declared in a statement: “The fight against large oil companies is not over today. We know that the truth and the law are on our side. Greenpeace will continue to campaign for a green future and in peace. We will not go back, we will not silence us.”
The verdict occurred after two days of deliberations in a trial. The reading of the sentence was detailing the positions for which each of the entities were responsible. The company claimed between 265 and 340 million compensation for the damages suffered and the ruling gave him the reason in most of them. In addition, the jury gave more than 400 million dollars in punitive damage, which are intended to punish the defendants for their conduct.
Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of paying protesters to interrupt the construction of the pipeline illegally and spreading falsehoods on the controversial project, located near the Indian Reserve of Standing Rock. The environmental organization rejects the accusations and ensures that its role in the protests was very limited and peaceful. They consider that demand constitutes an attack on freedom of expression.
The construction of the pipeline was ran into fierce protests from environmental defense groups and tribes, who claimed that the project would poison the local water supply and aggravate climate change. The pipeline transports approximately 40% of the oil produced in the Bakken region, in North Dakota, rich in hydrocarbons. The pipeline crosses several states and transports about 5% of the daily oil production in the United States
The Energy Transfer lawyer, Trey Cox, declared that Greenpeace’s “violent and destructive” protests were not the exercise of freedom of expression protected by law. “Today, the jury has issued a resounding verdict, declaring the actions of erroneous, illegal and unacceptable Greenpeace according to social standards. It is a day of adjustment of accounts and responsibility for Greenpeace,” said Cox, according to Reuters.
Energy Transfer described the verdict on Wednesday as “Victoria” for “Americans who understand the difference between the right to freedom of expression and the violation of the law.” “Although we are pleased that Greenpeace has been responsible for his actions against us, this victory is really for the people of Mandan and all North Dakota who had to live harassment and daily interruptions caused by the protesters financed and trained by Greenpeace,” said the company in a statement collected by Associated Press.
For his part, Deep Padmanabha, Greenpeace’s lawyer in the United States, said through a statement: “What we have seen during these three weeks has been the flagrant contempt of Energy Transfer by the voices of the Sioux tribe of Standing Rock. And although they also tried to misrepresent the truth about Greenpeace’s role in the protests, we reaffirm our unworthiness the actions we undertake ”. “We should all be concerned about demands like this that seek to destroy our rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression,” he added.
Greenpeace filed a lawsuit in the Netherlands against Energy Transfer for intimidation last month, testing for the first time a new board of the European Union to counteract manifestly unfounded cases aimed at harassing civil society. “We will see you in the courts of Amsterdam this July. We will not go back, they will not silence us,” Casper added.
Kelcy Warren, co -founder and president of Energy Transfer, is an outstanding donor of Donald Trump. The conviction to Greenpeace occurs just on a day when the president of the United States met in the White House with managers of oil companies. The Republican advocates to increase the production of fossil energies although it is necessary to skip environmental protections.
