U.S. pipeline giant’s Greenpeace lawsuit is an attack on freedoms

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By David Suzuki

Greenpeace was founded in my hometown of Vancouver in 1971. It has since become an international force, campaigning and advocating for environmental sanity on issues ranging from plastic pollution to the climate crisis. I’m a proud supporter.

Like all environmental and social justice organizations, Greenpeace has made mistakes and faced backlash over the years. That in itself isn’t a problem. Healthy debate is essential to a functioning democracy. But we’re now seeing growing efforts to criminalize and bankrupt people and organizations working for a better, safer, cleaner world.

In a new low, a North Dakota jury recently decided Greenpeace must pay pipeline company Energy Transfer US$667 million after the $70 billion company sued over demonstrations against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and 2017, arguing that Greenpeace incited people to protest through a “misinformation campaign.”

Greenpeace raised concerns about the ability to get a fair trial in oil and gas country (many jurors had industry ties) and stated that such corporate actions are aimed at “destroying the right to peaceful protest.” The organization plans to appeal.

“What we saw over these three weeks was Energy Transfer’s blatant disregard for the voices of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. And while they also tried to distort the truth about Greenpeace’s role in the protests, we instead reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to non-violence in every action we take,” Greenpeace senior legal adviser Deepa Padmanabha said.

The 1,900-kilometre Dakota Access pipeline moves fracked oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region to an oil terminal in Patoka, Illinois, where it connects with other pipelines to refineries. It goes through four states and under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, less than a kilometre from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Protests against the proposed pipeline began in 2016, when members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Rosebud Sioux Tribe gathered to defend water and cultural resources, claiming they weren’t consulted before the Army Corp of Engineers granted permits. Thousands of supporters — including more than 300 Indigenous nations, politicians, environmental and civil rights groups and celebrities — joined them.

Things soon turned ugly. Armed soldiers and police, along with pipeline company security forces, used attack dogs, tear gas, water cannons and concussion grenades to stop the land and water defenders from hindering construction — even spraying protesters with pressurized water in below-freezing temperatures.

In late 2016, the Army Corp denied pipeline easement across Lake Oahe pending an environmental assessment and consideration of alternative routes. But on taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump — who owned shares in Energy Transfer and received generous campaign and inauguration donations from the company’s CEO — ordered the Army Corp to expedite the easement. Construction was completed and oil started flowing in 2017.

Beyond its impacts on water and Indigenous rights, the pipeline carries enough crude to emit 121 million tonnes of climate-altering greenhouse gases a year when refined and burned. Non-profit energy group RMI estimates that could be 3.5 times higher if methane and nitrous oxides were considered.

Energy Transfer wants to increase pipeline capacity, driving up emissions and rupture and spill risks. A Greenpeace and Waterkeeper Alliance report found the company and its subsidiaries have experienced numerous incidents over the years, contaminating land and water throughout the U.S.

Although Greenpeace argues it wasn’t heavily involved in the Standing Rock issue, and provided assistance at the request of the Standing Rock Sioux, the environmental group is clearly seen as a threat to oil and gas interests and is a high-profile target for increasingly common efforts to silence opposition.

From Standing Rock to Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia and beyond, militarized law enforcement agencies are relying more often on use of force against land and water defenders, and companies are resorting to tactics such as SLAPPs (“strategic lawsuits against public participation” designed to silence opponents through costly, time-consuming legal processes). Those working to protect land, air, water, plants and animals and our future face an increasingly uphill battle.

The lawsuit against Greenpeace is an attack on the right to protest and speak freely. It won’t be the last. We should all stand with Standing Rock, and with organizations such as Greenpeace that are working for people and the planet and holding the line against the destructive fossil fuel industry.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.