5 Big Energy Stories - 2.27.2026: Big Oil Strikes Back as Big Tech, Germany Concede to Reality
North Dakota Judge Orders Greenpeace To Pay $345 million to Energy Transfer - Greenpeace conflict activists have entered into the FAFO phase of their professional lives, after a North Dakota judge, James Gion,ruled that several Greenpeace entities—including Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace International, and Greenpeace Fund Inc.—must pay $345 million to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, in connection with protests that occurred in 2016 and 2017 near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. This amount is roughly half of the original $667 million jury award, which included compensatory and punitive damages, but it’s a huge hit to the ethics-devoid conflict group, one its management claims it is unable to pay.
Too bad, so sad.
Key Excerpt: The judge fixed damages at $345m last year, cutting the jury’s award by roughly 50%, although the most recent filing did not state a final figure.
The order is expected to trigger appeals to the North Dakota Supreme Court by both sides.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is an underground crude oil pipeline stretching around 1,168 miles (1,880km), with a 30in diameter. The pipeline carries light, sweet crude oil from the Bakken/Three Forks Play in North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois.
The case arises from protests in 2016–17, when thousands gathered and set up camps near the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the Sioux Tribe’s Standing Rock reservation. The tribe has for years objected to the pipeline, saying it endangers its water supply.
