On July 23, 2024, Energy Transfer received a letter from Greenpeace requesting that we withdraw our claims in the U.S. lawsuit. Here is our response:
This correspondence serves as the response of Energy Transfer LP, Energy Transfer Operating, L.P., and Dakota Access, LLC (collectively, “Energy Transfer”) to the letter sent by Greenpeace International (“GPI”) on July 23, 2024, and characterized by GPI as a notice of liability (the “Letter”).
GPI’s Letter and its accompanying paid media campaign demonstrate two things: first, GPI is not being silenced, despite what it has been portraying to the public as part of that media campaign—on the contrary, GPI has exercised its free speech rights without limitation—and second, GPI is seeking to sidestep the consequences of its own illegal actions. Energy Transfer will vindicate its legal rights and interests in the ongoing North Dakota state court litigation (the “U.S. Lawsuit”) and will stand in opposition to GPI’s repeated attempts to avoid accountability for breaking the law.
Energy Transfer declines to withdraw its claims asserted against GPI in the U.S. Lawsuit and will not accept liability or responsibility for payment of any alleged damages incurred by GPI as a result of the same. Energy Transfer believes in the meritorious nature of the U.S. Lawsuit, including those claims brought against GPI, and intends to diligently pursue just adjudication of those claims in the North Dakota state court.
Further, after careful consideration, Energy Transfer considers GPI’s threatened causes of action before the courts of the Netherlands to be wholly without merit for several reasons, two reasons chief among them. First and foremost, the U.S. Lawsuit is quite clearly not a SLAPP suit. It is a legitimate and justified effort to hold GPI and its Greenpeace co-defendants responsible for the defamation, disruption, and property destruction they inflicted on Energy Transfer in contravention of the law. GPI has recycled the same SLAPP argument multiple times before, in both federal and state court, to no avail. GPI’s attempt to use Dutch courts to, once again, advance the same erroneous allegations is not only improper, but is gamesmanship, and will only serve to drain the time and resources of the Dutch legal system. Second, no existing Dutch or European laws referred to in the Letter can result in any form of liability of Energy Transfer, a U.S.-based company.
Energy Transfer’s Media Statement:
Our lawsuit against Greenpeace is not about free speech as they are trying to claim. It is about them not following the law. We 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. Beyond that we will let our case speak for itself in February.
Ready to learn more? Visit “The Facts” page on the Dakota Access Pipeline website: https://daplpipelinefacts.com/thefacts.html
