Remember the Dakota Access Pipeline
protest in 2016-2017? It caused a ruckus and created a mess, thanks to
the heaps of trash left behind by global warming activists. Well, there
was a lawsuit over the damages, and a jury found that Greenpeace was
liable. They got slapped with a $667 million judgment. The group plans
to appeal, but if they have to pay the full fine, this organization is
history (via NYT):
A North Dakota jury on Wednesday awarded damages totaling
more than $660 million to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy
Transfer, which had sued Greenpeace over its role in protests nearly a
decade ago against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The verdict was a
major blow to the environmental organization. Greenpeace had said that
Energy Transfer’s claimed damages, in the range of $300 million, would
be enough to put the group out of business in the United States. The
jury on Wednesday awarded far more than that.
Greenpeace said it
would appeal. The group has maintained that it played only a minor part
in demonstrations led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It has portrayed
the lawsuit as an attempt to stifle oil-industry critics.
The
nine-person jury in the Morton County courthouse in Mandan, N.D., about
45 minutes north of where the protests took place, returned the verdict
after roughly two days of deliberations.
[…]
The
demonstrators gathered on and around the Standing Rock Sioux
Reservation, arguing that the pipeline cut through sacred land and could
endanger the local water supply. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued to
stop the project, and members of other tribes, environmentalists and
celebrities were among the many who flocked to the rural area, including
two figures who are now members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet: Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard.
But the protests erupted into acts
of vandalism and violence at times, alienating people in the
surrounding community in the Bismarck-Mandan area.
Greenpeace has
long argued that the lawsuit was a threat to First Amendment rights,
brought by a deep-pocketed plaintiff and carrying dangerous implications
for organizations that speak out about a broad range of issues.
[…]
The
1,172-mile underground pipeline has been operating since 2017 but is
awaiting final permits for a small section where it crosses federal
territory underneath Lake Oahe on the Missouri River, near Standing
Rock. The tribe is still trying to shut down the pipeline in a different
lawsuit.
This judgment breaking the back of Greenpeace is already putting some
groups on notice, maybe even deter them from being total hooligans, as
legal action could follow. I’m okay with that—eco-terrorism, vandalism,
and mayhem aren’t exercises in free speech.
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