Eco-Roundup: Energy Transfer's War Chest for Defeating A Protest Movement

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I’m on a plane right now, leaving behind five weeks in Bismarck, mostly spent in the Morton County Courthouse. It feels like a lifetime, and I’m still processing everything that happened. I was there to cover the jury trial deciding the pipeline company Energy Transfer’s massive lawsuit against Greenpeace. In case you missed the news, Greenpeace lost. The jury issue a judgement against them totaling nearly $667 million. I was more shocked than I expected to be by the verdict. It just didn’t match the evidence I’d seen presented in the courtroom. 

Of course, civil liberties advocates have been calling this case a SLAPP – strategic lawsuit against public participation — for years. It means that it’s not about truth or justice, but about exacting a punishment. As the theory goes, Energy Transfer wanted someone to be punished for the massive, Indigenous-led movement to stop their Dakota Access Pipeline. They wanted to set an example and send a message — that any organization that supports a movement that actually hinders the operations of a fossil fuel company, might pay with its life. Greenpeace can’t afford all that money. They’ll appeal and maybe will live to see another day. But we probably won’t know that outcome for a year or two.

Anyway, I’m really excited to walk you all through what I witnessed there. But I’ve got a lot of work to do with my wonderful editors and producers at Drilled before that’s ready. For now, I wanted to lay down some of the damage numbers I wrote down as I sat in court, to give you a taste of where the $667 came from.

These numbers amount to an unusually complete accounting of a fossil fuel company’s war chest for beating a land and water defense movement.

So here are Energy Transfer's numbers — have a look and soak it in. But bear in mind, these came directly from the mouths of Energy Transfer’s attorneys at Gibson Dunn, jotted with a little pen and paper by yours truly. Apologies for any transcription errors. Note that I certainly haven’t reviewed the receipts.

Security services: $51,459,066

TigerSwan: $17,602,652

10-Code: $8,091,869
(remember one juror’s spouse had worked for 10-code, though not during construction)

RGT: $6,520,343

Special Response Corporation: $5,415,943

Leighton: $5,259,860

OnPoint: $5,067,289

Thompson Gray: $3,008,344

Per Mar: $492,765

Security equipment: $8,016,996

Solbreeze / Jones Contractors (security cameras, etc): $4,950,050

Florida Detention (fencing / barriers): $1,086,238

Verizon (cell service): $560,041

Double M Helicopters (aerial patrol): $491,228

Motorola (encrypted radios): $391,348

HESCO (hesco barriers): $295,232

Atkore (concertina wire): $242,500

Protection for Energy Transfer executives and offices: $700,484

(provided by off-duty Dallas police)

Purchase of the Cannonball Ranch: $8.5 million

(Energy Transfer says the rancher didn’t want to call the police, so they bought the land containing their pipeline easement.)

Public Relations: $7,038,335

DCI: $5,670,147

LS2: $792,541

Sitrick and Company: $575,647

Change orders, attributed to protest damages: $14,565,048

(Amendments to construction contracts. Remember one juror’s spouse had worked for Michels, though not during construction.)

Precision and Michels, security: $870,858

Michels, vandalism: $882,058

Precision and Michels, fencing: $944,244

Michels, site cleanup: $2,084,688

Michels, standby time when workers couldn’t work or had to move: $623, 010

Precision, protestor delays: $9,159,191

Lost profits from delay in commercial operations:

$80.1 million

(The pipeline was supposed to start operating in January 2017, but oil didn't end up flowing until June.)

Cost of delay in refinancing of loan: $96.4 million

 

Total Compensatory Damages (my math): $266.6 million

Total Jury judgement: nearly $667 million

In sum, Energy Transfer says it spent over $266 million on protest-related expenses, and that Greenpeace should compensate them for every penny. The jury’s award amounted to over twice the total compensatory damages. Much, if not all, of the rest is exemplary damages — money meant to punish and set an example.

Other stories I’m following:

“It would grind enforcement down to a halt” 

Energy Transfer’s latest legal endeavor is an attempt to slow down the agency that regulates oil pipelines, PHMSA. Right now senior PHMSA officials decide if an oil pipeline company has violated environmental or permitting rules. Energy Transfer wants to make it so those violations would go to a federal court, with the option of even a jury trial. It would mean long, drawn-out litigation for violations and ultimately less enforcement. Plus, Energy Transfer is adept at working the federal court system to its advantage — something that’s at play here, too. The company found a judge with a reputation for being sympathetic to conservative causes. The Trump administration also appears to be very amenable to this type of complaint. Energy Transfer has been hit repeatedly with millions of dollars of PHMSA violations for safety issues with its pipeline, and it’s apparently found a solution in this attempt to gut the agency.

“Mr. Smith is far from a terrorist”

A Canadian man with autism was sentenced to 25 years for shooting a rifle at the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota and as well as a North Dakota power station. According to the New York Times, the judge found that the crime could be considered terrorism under a federal law around destruction of an energy facility. Fifty-year-old Cameron Smith was attempting to make a point about the climate crisis.

Federal prosecutors had also recommended that the terrorism enhancement be applied, though my understanding based on reading the judgement form is that it was not. The prosecutors' sentencing memo explained why they wanted the terrorism enhancement. They noted that the Extinction Rebellion symbol was spray painted at both sites, and law enforcement discovered a “communique” that also mentioned Extinction Rebellion (which appears to be under seal). An FBI agent who testified in the case asserted that Extinction Rebellion is an “environmentalist extremist group.” Also justifying the terrorism enhancement, the sentencing memo stated, was “a panoply of environmentalist documents, particularly focused on global warming and climate change,” as well as, “an environmentalist policy paper” and a “map containing locations of pipelines juxtaposed with tribal homelands.”

The defense lawyer noted that no power customers they were harmed by or noticed outages.

“If DOJ and the FBI are aiding and abetting this unlawful plot, it crosses very significant redlines.”

The FBI has taken steps to criminalize nonprofits for accepting grants from Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency. The FBI investigations are tied to a video by Project Veritas, a right-wing group that likes to secretly film political opponents. An EPA employee was filmed talking about the rush to wrap up the grant-making process before Trump entered office. At one point he stated, “It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge,” and that’s become a major talking point for criminalizing funded groups. Billions of dollars in grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, an Inflation Reduction Act initiative meant to support a transition from fossil fuels, have been frozen or cancelled. Among those impacted are Habitat for Humanity, Climate United Fund, the Coalition for Green Capital, United Way, and others. Some have now sued in response.  

“Daddy has a place for us to go”
 
One of the most remarkable landmarks in Bismarck, North Dakota is Grand 22 Theatres. For unclear reason the cinema has an Egyptian theme and comes complete with a life-sized replica of Charlton Heston in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments. It also tends to have a hearty selection of right-wing and religious movies playing on the theater screens. So on a slow Saturday I decided to lean in and watched a well-attended matinee of The Homestead, a movie about a doomsday prepper who helps save humanity. A few highlights: the nuclear weapon that sets off the plot is ignited by two immigrants on a sailboat. At one point, a family almost dies because they try to escape LA in an electric vehicle, and it runs out of juice. Among the heroes is team of mercenaries who join the homestead. And the biggest villain is a tax collector, who demands that all the prepper’s stuff be inventoried so he can take it all away and redistribute it. This film was produced by a Mormon production studio, Angel Studios. Apparently they’re also screening Angel's films at my sister’s small-town theater in Minnesota. I would LOVE to see a profile of this studio, religion reporter friends.   

Palate Cleansers

I cover topics that are heavy and distressing to take in, so I'm ending these posts with things that make me feel grounded: food, nature, community.

Something Delicious: 

The Bismarck-Mandan area is small for sure, but not devoid of treats. The most emblematic regional delicacies that I could decipher were knoephla — a creamy German potato soup with little pasta-like dumplings — and caramel rolls — fluffy doughy snail-shaped rolls smothered in buttery, sugary caramel goo, available at every breakfast stop. The best knoephla I ate was at this butcher shop and deli around the corner from the courthouse called the Butcher Block. The best caramel roll was from the Little Cottage Cafe.

If you ever visit, you should also stop by a very solid Indian restaurant called India Clay Oven Bar and Grill. Obviously also go to the Prairie Knights Casino on Standing Rock, where they just renovated their restaurant and opened up a little pizza window. I did eat deep-fried bull testicles at Mandan’s Moose Lodge, but I also drank a really nice dry cider at a queer-friendly brewery and cidery, a mile away, called Dialectic.

Garden Update: 

No garden of mine to speak of in North Dakota, but there was a park that I like. I was technically in town for the change of seasons, but true spring doesn’t hit the upper Midwest until April if you’re lucky (but probably May). It doesn’t help that the state has been in drought for a really long time. When I visited last October, there were wildfires, and there were wildfires again when I was there this month. What spring does mean, though, is that it’s light well past 7 pm up that far north. So at the end of my days, I could walk up a hill that crested high enough that you could see how fast the city fades away into sandy-colored ranch lands, buttes, and prairie.

Community Bulletin Board:

One of my big takeaways from all this was the importance of local news. Mary Steurer, a local reporter at the North Dakota Monitor, was in that courtroom every day, providing coverage that was re-published around the state. But it wasn't a given that she'd be there or that people from the Bismark-Mandan area would have any meaningful access to what was happening. Local newsrooms have been gutted over the last couple decades, and most places have far less coverage than they did when I got into journalism. In turn, our collective sense of reality is slipping. I’d really encourage readers to consider subscribing or donating to a local publication based wherever you live or wherever you're from.

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