Kristin Casper, center, general counsel for Greenpeace International, and other representatives for Greenpeace speak to the media March 19, 2025, outside the Morton County Courthouse. (Amy Dalrymple/North Dakota Monitor)
Greenpeace says a North Dakota judge should not halt a free speech lawsuit it filed against the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Netherlands.
The Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International brought the case in response to Energy Transfer’s colossal lawsuit accusing the environmental group of engaging in conspiracy, defamation and other crimes in opposition to the pipeline. Energy Transfer’s lawsuit, pending in North Dakota, is also against two other Greenpeace entities, Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund.
Greenpeace International filed suit under a European Union directive intended to protect activist organizations from being targeted by frivolous lawsuits. It wants an Amsterdam court to find, among other things, that Energy Transfer filed the North Dakota lawsuit purely as an attempt to punish Greenpeace for supporting the Indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International’s lawsuit also seeks monetary damages from Energy Transfer, and accuses the energy company of publishing false information about the environmental group.
Energy Transfer argues that the Dutch lawsuit is a means for Greenpeace International to relitigate, and ultimately overturn, a March verdict by a Morton County jury that found the environmental group at fault for more than $660 million.
The energy company asked Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion last month to order Greenpeace International to put the Netherlands case on pause until the North Dakota lawsuit wraps up.
“This extraordinary measure is necessitated solely by Greenpeace’s bad-faith tactics,” Trey Cox, the lead attorney representing Energy Transfer in the lawsuit, wrote in a letter to Gion.
Greenpeace International in Tuesday court records said the Dutch lawsuit considers a different set of issues from the North Dakota case and therefore won’t interfere with Gion’s court.
Gion does not have jurisdiction over the Amsterdam courts, nor does his job allow him to “grant plaintiffs worldwide immunity” for their actions, Greenpeace International added.
According to Greenpeace, a North Dakota court has never attempted to halt an overseas lawsuit. Court precedent indicates judges should only do so in the rarest of circumstances, the environmental group wrote.
Greenpeace in court documents says it made Energy Transfer aware it was preparing to file the Netherlands lawsuit more than a year ago.
Gion has yet to issue a judgment in the North Dakota case following the jury’s verdict. Greenpeace has requested that Gion overturn the jury’s verdict, or at least reduce it.
Energy Transfer last month urged Gion to enter a judgment against Greenpeace soon in light of the lawsuit in the Netherlands.
Gion will hear arguments on the motion on Aug. 20.
North Dakota Monitor reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.
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