MANDAN, N.D. (AP) 鈥� A Texas pipeline company's lawsuit seeking of dollars from Greenpeace was set to advance with opening statements Wednesday in a trial the environmental organization calls an effort to of the oil industry.
Jury selection took place earlier in the week and the estimated now will get underway in Mandan, North Dakota.
The lawsuit stems in 2016 and against the oil pipeline and its controversial upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline as a risk to its water supply. The pipeline in 2017.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access allege trespass, nuisance, defamation and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International and its American branch, Greenpeace USA. The lawsuit also names the group鈥檚 funding arm, Greenpeace Fund Inc.
The lawsuit alleges Greenpeace tried to delay construction of the pipeline, defamed the companies behind it, and coordinated trespassing, vandalism and violence by pipeline protesters.
The Greenpeace defendants deny the allegations.
Greenpeace says the lawsuit is going after $300 million, citing a figure from a previous federal case. The lawsuit complaint asks for damages in an amount to be proved at trial.
Greenpeace representatives say the case is an example of corporations abusing the legal system to go after critics and is a critical test of free speech and protest rights.
鈥淲e are trying to bring visibility around a fight that will have major implications for the future of the First Amendment because those who bring these types of lawsuits, they want these fights to remain silent and invisible,鈥� said Senior Legal Adviser Deepa Padmanabha.
The lawsuit is about Greenpeace not following the law, not about free speech, Energy Transfer spokesperson Vicki Granado has said previously.
鈥淲e support the rights of all Americans to express their opinions and lawfully protest. However, when it is not done in accordance with our laws, we have a legal system to deal with that,鈥� she said.
The company in federal court in 2017, which in 2019. Energy Transfer subsequently filed the lawsuit now at trial in state court.
Jack Dura, The Associated Press
