Greenpeace, a “global network of independent campaigning organizations” that protests environmental destruction, is being sued by Energy Transfer, a Dallas-based oil and gas company that claims the nonprofit group harmed its business with protests a decade ago. The suit was filed in North Dakota state court. Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace Fund were both named as co-defendants in the controversial case.

The lawsuit is centered around protests that occurred near the Standing Rock Reservation in the Dakotas in 2016. If the plaintiffs are successful, Greenpeace will most likely face bankruptcy.

In court documents, Energy Transfer alleges Greenpeace protested in an “unlawful and violent scheme to cause financial harm to Energy Transfer, physical harm to its employees and infrastructure, and to disrupt and prevent Energy Transfer’s construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.” The Dakota Access Pipeline is comprised of a 1,168-mile pipeline that transports crude oil from the state of North Dakota to Illinois. 

The protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline erupted in 2017 after then-president Trump supported the controversial project.

At the time of the protests, Native Americans were leading the demonstrations, and numerous environmental groups and experts say that the lawsuit was designed to stifle freedom of speech and create a precedent that can harm protest groups while violating the First Amendment freedom to protest and the right to free speech.

“This trial is a critical test of the future of the First Amendment, both freedom of speech and peaceful protest under the Trump administration and beyond,” Sushma Raman, Greenpeace’s interim director, said recently about the trial.

Energy Transfer is seeking $300 million in damages, which Greenpeace International says is about 10 times its annual budget.

In 2016, after the Dakota Access Pipeline was approved, Native Americans protested, saying that the new pipeline carrying crude oil would “encroach” on their sacred land and also have a negative impact on their water supply. At the time, many thousands of protesters arrived on the scene from across the nation and created living quarters in encampments near the reservation. Local tribal leaders sued to block the pipeline.

In 2017, Energy Transfer filed a claim in federal court alleging protesters and others violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), which the Department of Justice says “seeks to strengthen the legal tools in evidence gathering by establishing new penal prohibitions and providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies for dealing with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime.” That suit was dismissed.

The current lawsuit by Energy Transfer alleges Greenpeace orchestrated an "unlawful and violent scheme to cause financial harm to Energy Transfer, physical harm to its employees and infrastructure, and to disrupt and prevent Energy Transfer's construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline".

The lawsuit is proceeding in the conservative state of North Dakota, which is the home state of Doug Burgum, who served as governor there and is now the Secretary for the Department of the Interior, the federal agency responsible for the management of the nation’s public lands and natural resources.

Greenpeace has publicly said it is concerned the group cannot get a fair trial in North Dakota, an oil-rich state.

The trial is expected to take five weeks.

Greenpeace strongly denies all accusations and states that the trial is a way to inhibit its nonprofit while harming the right to protest and free speech in the United States.