Heavy Fine for Damages and Protests
A jury in North Dakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay $660 million to a Texas pipeline company called Energy Transfer. Greenpeace will appeal but the suit named both Greenpeace USA and also the international arm, and the damages are so large, if they survive the appeal they would bankrupt the US branch entirely and prevent Greenpeace operating in the USA.
The payment is to compensate for damages and losses from protests in 2015 and 2016 that damaged and delayed the North Dakota Access Pipeline. The protests were so large and so out of control, the clean-up bill cost North Dakota $38 million dollars.
Reports Jo Nova, “The 1,172-mile long pipeline did eventually start operation in 2017. It shifts 5% of the daily oil production of the United States. Presumably every month it was delayed would have cost US customer money, time or a better choice, and there’s no compensation for them. Taxpayers also, likely funded some of the Greenpeace budget through USAID and the Tides Foundation. It’s easy to imagine how a million dollars here or there could whip up angry protests that cause hundreds of millions in losses.” (2)
Killing Policy on Genetically Modified Foods
Another example of egregious action by Greenpeace is their stance on genetically modified food. This one is responsible for thousands, if not millions of deaths.
A Philippine court in April 2024, acting on a filing by Greenpeace rescinded the country’s commercialization approval of Golden Rice, a ruling that even the uber liberal The Guardian, UK, long a dogged opponent of genetically modified crops (GMOs) and a former ally of Greenpeace on this issue, characterized as disgraceful. (3)
The sudden decision at a time when the first batch was ready to be harvested has reverberated across the globe. Scientists from food insecure nations such as India and Bangladesh fear that the pathway to commercial approval of important genetically modified crops in their own countries will become more difficult acutely by the poor, with potentially 100,000 new deaths of children each year as the outcome.