The $300M Lawsuit That Could Crush Dissent

Climate One

News, News Commentary, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, is suing Greenpeace for $300 million. The pipeline company accuses Greenpeace of criminal behavior — trespassing, vandalism, and assault of construction workers — and inciting riotous behavior by protesters at Standing Rock in 2016. Greenpeace considers this legal action to be a “SLAPP suit” — a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — aimed at silencing not just Greenpeace, but civil protests everywhere. The trial is just getting underway in Morton County, North Dakota. In this episode we unpack not just this case, but the broader implications of such suits. Guests: Rolf Skar, National Campaigns Director, Greenpeace Montgomery Brown, Member, Standing Rock Grassroots Laura Prather, Chair of First Amendment Practice, Haynes Boone On March 24, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt and Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center, will speak with Climate One about the development of sustainably powered artificial intelligence. Tickets are on sale through our website. Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. For show notes and related links, visit our website. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hear that? It's your big McDonald's hunger calling, because the Big Arch is back,
0:04.8	and this time it's here to stay with juicy beef, cheddar cheese and that Big Arch sauce.
0:09.9	Hungry? You are now.
0:11.7	Order delivery on the McDonald's app.
0:15.0	Serve from 11am. Upcharges and fees apply to delivery orders.
0:17.9	Subjects availability, price and participation may vary.
0:20.7	I'm Ariana Brocious.
0:22.2	I'm Kusha Navadar.
0:23.4	And this is Climate 1.
0:26.8	Hey, Kusha, have you ever heard of a slap lawsuit?
0:30.2	Yes, I learned about slap suits from the same place.
0:33.8	Many of us get our news.
0:35.4	John Oliver.
0:36.4	He had a whole segment on his show about Slaps after he was sued by Cole executive Bob
0:41.3	Murray for critical coverage.
0:43.3	Obviously, the lawsuit was a b-eat effort to silence us, perhaps best exemplified by a motion
0:48.3	that Murray filed to try and get a gag order to prevent us from rebroadcasting the story
0:53.3	or even having it up online. And for the record,
0:56.3	the piece is still on the internet big time. And you can actually find it at still on the internet
1:01.1	bigtime.com. The episode, and it's really worth your time to watch it, aired in 2019,
1:08.0	after Oliver won the Slap defamation lawsuit against him.
1:11.5	Slap. It stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation. It sounds aggressive,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Climate One, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Climate One and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.