In a resounding victory for American energy and a stinging rebuke of radical environmentalism, a North Dakota jury has slammed Greenpeace with a staggering $660 million judgment in favor of Energy Transfer, the Texas-based pipeline giant behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. This landmark decision, handed down on Wednesday, sends a clear message: the lawless tactics of eco-extremists will not be tolerated in a nation built on the rule of law and the pursuit of prosperity.

As I wrote previously, Greenpeace was in the fight of its life.

READ MORE: Greenpeace Freaks Out as Lawsuit Threatens the Organization's Viability

For nearly a decade, Energy Transfer has faced relentless assaults from Greenpeace and its allies, who turned a local dispute over the pipeline into a national circus of vandalism and violence back in 2016 and 2017. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, egged on by professional agitators, claimed the pipeline threatened sacred land and water supplies—conveniently ignoring the jobs, energy security, and economic growth it promised for hardworking Americans. What started as a protest morphed into chaos, with Greenpeace pouring fuel on the fire by funding and training disruptors, all while hiding behind a flimsy shield of "free speech."

🚨🇺🇸 GREENPEACE HIT WITH MASSIVE VERDICT OVER DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE PROTESTS

A North Dakota jury just handed Greenpeace a costly defeat, ruling the group defamed Energy Transfer and awarding the pipeline company hundreds of millions in damages.

Energy Transfer argued… pic.twitter.com/nuhGDeDifo

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 19, 2025

The jury in Mandan, North Dakota—a community that bore the brunt of the mayhem—saw through the sham. After just two days of deliberation, they delivered a verdict that didn’t just meet Energy Transfer’s $340 million damage claim but doubled down with punitive damages, totaling over $660 million. Trespass, defamation, conspiracy—the list of Greenpeace’s transgressions read like a rap sheet, and the jurors weren’t buying the group’s excuse that it was just a bit player in the mess it helped create.

Greenpeace, predictably, is crying foul, whining that this payout could bankrupt its U.S. operations. Good riddance, say many conservatives who’ve watched the group thumb its nose at law and order for years. "This is about accountability," said Trey Cox, Energy Transfer’s lead attorney from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, outside the courthouse. "Peaceful protest is American as apple pie, but what Greenpeace did—funding destruction and smearing a company trying to keep our country running—that’s not protest, that’s sabotage."  People like @theCCR love to say that their right to protest is being harmed yet they don't tell you about the damage to the environment when they leave trash and destroy private properties. 

OUTRAGE: A Big Oil-stacked jury just sided with corporate power, slapping @Greenpeace with millions in damages for standing with Indigenous water protectors against DAPL. This is a dangerous attack on the right to protest, but the fight is not over. https://t.co/CaMOr7TCVQ

— The CCR is on bsky (@ccrjustice.org) (@theCCR) March 19, 2025

Energy Transfer’s chairman, Kelcy Warren—a proud Trump supporter—put it bluntly in a deposition played for the jury: “We’ve got to stand up for ourselves.” And stand up they did. Warren’s company, a titan in America’s energy sector, refused to let a “false narrative” peddled by green radicals derail a project that’s been pumping oil—and economic lifeblood—since 2017. The pipeline’s final stretch awaits federal approval, but this verdict proves the tide is turning against those who’d rather see America grovel than thrive.

Of course, Greenpeace is pulling out all the stops to spin this as an attack on the First Amendment. “This threatens our rights to peaceful protest,” bleated Deepa Padmanabha, a Greenpeace lawyer, as if torching equipment and delaying a vital infrastructure project qualifies as "peaceful." The irony wasn’t lost on Cox, who called the ruling a “powerful affirmation” of real free speech—speech that doesn’t come with a Molotov cocktail attached.

The trial laid bare Greenpeace’s playbook: exploit a local grievance, amplify it with cash and chaos, and then cry victim when the bill comes due. Jurors heard how the group dispatched its solar-paneled truck and funneled resources to keep the protests raging, all while racking up costs for Energy Transfer and alienating the Bismarck-Mandan community. “They thought they’d never get caught,” Cox told the jury. But caught they were—and now they’ll pay.

For conservatives, this is more than a win for one company; it’s a blow against the left’s war on energy independence. The Dakota Access Pipeline isn’t just a tube in the ground—it’s a lifeline for an America tired of begging foreign powers for fuel. Yet Greenpeace and its ilk would rather see us shackled to windmills and solar panels, consequences be damned. The jury’s decision signals that regular folks—especially in a state like North Dakota, where oil is king—aren’t swallowing the green agenda anymore.

Greenpeace vows to appeal, clutching at straws with claims of a “SLAPP suit” meant to silence dissent. But with a jury of nine everyday Americans seeing through their excuses, that appeal looks like a long shot. Meanwhile, Energy Transfer stands tall, a reminder that when push comes to shove, the silent majority still values progress over pandemonium. As one local put it outside the courthouse, “Maybe now they’ll think twice before messing with our way of life.” Amen to that.