Peace Garden News

On September 28, 2017, Dakota Access Pipeline LLC donated $15 million to the state of North Dakota to help the debt incurred by the state in dealing with the result of protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

The state had sanctioned $43 million in loan authority from the Bank of North Dakota to cover the expenses of handling the aftermath of the protests. This allocation includes $40 million designated for the Department of Emergency Services (DES) as the coordinating agency and a $3 million loan to DES for reimbursement of Morton County's extraordinary expenses incurred during the protests.

“We are grateful for Dakota Access Pipeline’s recognition of the significant impacts this project had on our state, our citizens and the law enforcement officers and emergency services personnel who worked tirelessly to protect the life, health and safety of everyone involved,” said Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND). “We remain committed to pursuing all available avenues to ensure that North Dakota taxpayers alone don’t bear the enormous costs of law enforcement, life safety and other resources expended on the protests.”

The $15 million from Dakota Access Pipeline LLC was used to pay down some of the loans taken out by the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services (DES). The state also accepted a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to help cover the loans regarding law enforcement costs. 

The protests, which occurred in 2016 and 2017, “drew thousands of people to camp out” in Morton County, the Associated Press reported. They resulted in 761 arrests, according to MPR News. Charges ranged from trespassing to more severe offenses. A significant number of those arrested were from out of state.

California resident and actress Shailene Woodley was arrested in October 2016. Other figures, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio, participated in the protests but were not arrested.

Certain days of the protests resulted in dozens of arrests, such as February 1, 2017, when 76 people were arrested after Morton County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Rob Keller said a “rogue group of protesters” had trespassed on private property.

The State of North Dakota is currently suing the federal government to “recoup $38 million it claims it spent policing the protest camps,” Source NM reported.

Attorneys for North Dakota reportedly argued in court records that the protests “resulted from an illegal occupation on federal lands and led to ‘frequent outbreaks of illegal, dangerous, unsanitary, and life-threatening activity on federal, state and private property.’”

North Dakota Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Seby said in court that the aftermath of the protests “required a four-day cleanup of the camp and 600 bins to remove 9.8 million pounds of trash,” according to MPR News.

Former Morton County Commissioner Cody Schulz, who is now the director of the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department, said in court that, “beyond the drain on law enforcement, the protests caused a range of impacts on Morton County — everything from minor inconveniences like sluggish traffic to damage to private property,” Source NM reported.

Energy Transfer Partners, the owner of the pipeline, has filed a $300 million lawsuit in state court against the environmental activist organization Greenpeace for its role in the protests. The suit says Greenpeace “should be held responsible for trying to disrupt pipeline construction and damage the company’s reputation and finances,” the Associated Press reported.

That lawsuit, and an attempted settlement, led to the recent ouster of Greenpeace’s Executive Director Ebony Twilley Martin, said the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Greenpeace.

Willem van Rijn, the group’s COO until April 2024, told E&E News that “Twilley Martin ‘advocated a way in which the organization would settle for a minor amount of money so that we could fight another day,’” and that the “board vehemently disagreed.”

Greenpeace last week launched a fundraising campaign to “raise awareness” of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by Energy Transfer Partners in Morton County District Court is currently pending.