A North Dakota judge officially ordered Greenpeace to pay $345 million to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline following a nearly yearlong tug-of-war over a Morton County jury’s verdict.
The jury in March 2025 originally ordered Greenpeace to pay Energy Transfer about $667 million, finding the environmental group at fault for harming the company during anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 and for publishing false statements that harmed the company’s reputation. Greenpeace denies these allegations and says Energy Transfer’s lawsuit is a veiled attempt to punish the environmental group for supporting the demonstrations.
Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion in October slashed the jury’s award to $345 million, though he didn’t finalize the amount until Friday.
The final judgment also orders Greenpeace to pay 11% interest on the sum, starting from March 19, the date the jury announced its verdict, until the full amount is paid.
Greenpeace said in a Friday news release it expects in the short-term to request a new trial or an amendment to Gion’s judgment.
Later, Greenpeace will have the option of appealing the decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
“This is a setback, but the movement to defend people and the planet has always faced setbacks and resistance, and Energy Transfer will fail in its goal of silencing its critics,” Marco Simons, interim general counsel for Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund, said in the announcement.
Energy Transfer was not immediately available for comment on Friday.
In the aftermath of the jury’s verdict, Greenpeace asked Gion to completely eliminate or at least reduce the $667 million award, alleging it exceeded statutory caps on damages and that the verdict contained inconsistencies. Gion agreed with some of those claims when he cut the sum by roughly half.
Energy Transfer previously indicated that it would ask the North Dakota Supreme Court to reverse Gion’s reduction of the damages.
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