The developer behind the Dakota Access Pipeline sued environmental groups Tuesday for allegedly using misinformation to prevent the multi-billion oil project from being constructed.
Greenpeace and other activist groups manufactured false information about the so-called DAPL so they could generate donations and torpedo the pipeline, according to a press statement from Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). There actions also violated federal and state racketeering statutes, the company argued.
“[T]he attacks were calculated and thoroughly irresponsible, causing enormous harm to people and property along the pipeline’s route,” ETP’s statement notes, before listing a series of Greenpeace’s worst offenses, which include suggesting the pipeline encroached on tribal treaty lands and desecrated sacred American Indian sites.
Greenpeace and Earth First! activists admit that their campaign has inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to ETP and the financial institutions that support the company, the company alleges.
The company argue the groups’ claims provoked anti-DAPL activists into believing the $3.8 billion project, which crosses underneath the Missouri River in North Dakota, tramples on tribal grounds and could potentially poison the Standing Rock Sioux’s primary water supply if the line springs a leak.
Opposition to the pipeline died down shortly after the Obama administration rejected the hotly contested pipeline route – but DAPL opponents were re-energized after President Donald Trump overturned his predecessor’s order.
Greenpeace USA General Counsel Tom Wetterer told The Daily Caller News Foundation that ETP’s lawsuit is baseless. He also suggested that President Donald Trump was partially involved in making the allegations.
“This is the second consecutive year Donald Trump’s go-to attorneys at the Kasowitz law firm have filed a meritless lawsuit against Greenpeace,” Wetterer said. “They are apparently trying to market themselves as corporate mercenaries willing to abuse the legal system to silence legitimate advocacy work.”
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