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Lawsuit Aims To Hold Environmental Group Accountable For Pipeline Protests

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

 

Marchers protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline

The recent spate of anti-Israel demonstrations at college campuses could cause déjà vu for North Dakotans, who endured the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016. Like many of the campus protests, the pipeline protests were funded and fueled by big outside groups that showed little concern for the damaging impacts of their actions.

Now, a lawsuit being heard this summer is designed to hold some of these groups responsible for their actions. Energy Transfer, the owner and operator of the pipeline, is suing Greenpeace and other alleged instigators for $300 million for the damages sustained by the company as a result of these protests. The lawsuit claims that these environmental activists spent months spreading false information about the pipeline project and helped fund out-of-state agitators who attacked law enforcement and damaged property during the protests.

As it relates to the North Dakota controversy, the lawsuit alleges a Greenpeace misinformation campaign began with mass emails falsely claiming that the Dakota Access Pipeline would travel across the sovereign land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, that it would destroy “sacred Native Lands,” and was being approved without proper environmental reviews.

Energy Transfer says none of the claims made by Greenpeace were accurate. It says the pipeline does not cross any Standing Rock land, and the company had made 140 different modifications to its planned route to avoid potentially impacting any culturally important sites. An independent review by the North Dakota Historic Preservation Office later concluded the pipeline affected no historic properties.

Furthermore, the pipeline was approved after years during which multiple environmental studies and reviews were conducted. Pipelines can actually play an important role in improving environmental outcomes because there is a greater likelihood of spills and leaks from other transportation methods like railroads, trucks and barges.

The lawsuit alleges that lies spread by Greenpeace attracted thousands of protesters to North Dakota who soon formed massive encampments.

Energy Transfer claims Greenpeace also helped provide nearly a half-million dollars and additional training to another group of protesters tasked with using violence to stop or delay the pipeline. Greenpeace allegedly continued to support these activities, even organizing fundraising drives across ten cities to collect supplies for the members of the Red Warrior Society. The lawsuit alleges that, in November 2016, members of the encampment raided Energy Transfer property, then lit fires and attacked police with grenades and flares.

In the aftermath of the protests, the suit alleges Greenpeace and its allies left with millions of dollars raised from the protests and their publicity. Meanwhile, North Dakotans were left with the bill to clean-up the environmental disaster of human waste, trash, and abandoned animals left in the encampments. And while the Dakota Access Pipeline was completed, Energy Transfer claims it lost significant amounts of money due to destroyed equipment, security costs, and project delays.

Energy Transfer’s lawsuit seeks to hold Greenpeace and others accountable for these alleged actions. Protesters and the groups that fund them have rights, but so do the individuals and companies who they unfairly malign and attack. The case could be an important reminder to organizations and protesters that free speech is constitutionally protected, but inciting and funding violent actions is not.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

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US Eating Canada’s Lunch While Liberals Stall – Trump Admin Announces Record-Shattering Energy Report

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Audrey Streb

The Department of Energy (DOE) touted a report on Wednesday which states that America broke records in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

The U.S. became the first country to export over 10 million metric tonnes of LNG in one month in October, Reuters reported on Monday, citing preliminary data from the financial firm LSEG. The DOE posted on X on Wednesday that “there are big opportunities ahead for U.S. natural gas” and has consistently championed LNG in a sharp departure from former President Joe Biden’s crackdown on the resource.

“The fact that America’s oil and gas industry was able to pass this stunning milestone is impressive considering all the roadblocks to progress which were thrown up by the Biden administration,” David Blackmon, an energy and policy writer who spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It is a testament to both the resilience and innovative mindset of the industry and to the phenomenal wealth of America’s natural gas resource.”

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Two facilities in Louisiana and Texas are responsible for the LNG export surge, according to Reuters. The U.S. LNG industry emerged as an energy sector giant in recent decades, with America now leading the world in LNG exports after being projected to be a net importer as late as 2010, according to S&P Global.

The Biden administration enacted a freeze on new LNG export permits and “intentionally buried a lot of data and released a skewed study to discredit the benefits of American LNG,” the DCNF previously reported. The environmental lobby applauded Biden’s January 2024 freeze on new LNG export terminals, though critics argued that the policy stalled investment, would not reduce emissions and undermined America’s global strategic interests.

In contrast, President Donald Trump sought opportunities to bolster LNG and reversed the new permit pause through a day-one executive order. Some energy policy experts told the DCNF that the reported milestone highlights the resiliency of the industry and the benefit of Trump’s “American energy dominance” agenda.

“By expediting LNG terminal expansion and signing off on export agreements, the Trump administration is rapidly powering the world while simultaneously keeping his commitment for U.S. energy dominance,” Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, told the DCNF. “The world wants U.S. gas, and under Trump they are getting it, in the process showing the world what a market economy can do when unfettered by unnecessary, duplicative, regulations that stifle growth.”
“The only thing that has held the U.S. economy and our energy independence and dominance back over the decades is Democratic administration’s pushing inane, futile, climate policies, restricting fossil fuel use,” Burnett continued. “New LNG export data shows those days are over and what America can accomplish for itself and the world, when a President puts America first.”
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Trump Reportedly Planning Ground Troops, Drone Strikes On Cartels In Mexico

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Wallace White

The U.S. is reportedly planning to send troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels, former and current U.S. officials told NBC News Monday.

Training has reportedly already begun for such a mission, two current U.S. officials told NBC News, though no deployment to Mexico is imminent. The plan would deploy both U.S. military and CIA personnel on the ground in Mexico and include drone strikes on cartel targets, according to the report. If put into action, it would be a significant escalation in President Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign against Latin American drug cartels.

“The Trump administration is committed to utilizing an all-of-government approach to address the threats cartels pose to American citizens,” a senior administration official told NBC in response to the news.

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If the mission is approved, the administration reportedly plans to keep the operation secret and not publicize any strikes, unlike the video-documented attacks on cartel boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that Trump has highlighted in the past, according to the report.

The plan calls for drone strikes against drug labs in Mexico as well as top cartel leaders, the officials told NBC News, and is not intended to undermine the Mexican government.

The U.S. troops will reportedly mostly be Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) members, who operate under the authority of the intelligence community, two current officials told NBC News. Pat administrations have deployed the CIA to aid in missions against cartels from the Mexican government, but have never gotten involved directly as the reported plan prescribes.

The CIA and the White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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