American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2017 - 14

IndustryDigest
Energy Transfer Sues
Greenpeace, Earth First!
Over Anti-DAPL Actions

DALLAS-The companies behind the
Dakota Access Pipeline are suing
Greenpeace International and other antidevelopment groups, alleging they
engaged in a conspiracy to manufacture
and disseminate materially false and
misleading information about the
pipeline project.
Energy Transfer Partners LP and
Energy Transfer Equity LP filed the
lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the
District of North Dakota. Other parties
in the suit include Greenpeace Inc.,
Greenpeace Fund Inc., BankTrack, and
Earth First!, the companies say. The
allegations say the conspiracy's aims
include fraudulently inducing donations
to the groups, interfering with pipeline
construction activities, and damaging
Energy Transfer's business and
financial relationships.
The lawsuit also alleges the groups
incited, funded, and facilitated crimes
and acts of terrorism to further its
objectives, and claims those actions
violated federal and state racketeering
statutes, and also constituted defamation
and tortious interference under North
Dakota law.
Energy Transfer Partners lost at least
$300 million because of those actions, the
lawsuit reads, with the companies seeking
triple damages and punitive damages.
"The alleged enterprise is comprised
of rogue environmental groups and
militant individuals who employ a
pattern of criminal activity and a
campaign of misinformation for
purposes of increasing donations and
advancing their political or business
agendas," Energy Transfer says. "The
complaint describes the enterprise's
misinformation campaign that
aggressively targeted Energy Transfer's
critical business relationships, including
the financing sources for DAPL and
Energy Transfer's other infrastructure
projects, by publically demanding these
financial institutions sever ties with
Energy Transfer or face crippling
boycotts or other illegal attacks."
According to the lawsuit, the attacks
were calculated and thoroughly
irresponsible, and harmed people and
properties along the pipeline's route.
Energy Transfer says Dakota Access
was a legally permitted project that
14 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

underwent nearly three years of
rigorous environmental review, and thus
it has an obligation to its shareholders,
partners, stakeholders and all affected
by the violence and destruction
intentionally incited by the defendants
to file the lawsuit.
The companies also allege the antidevelopment groups directly and
indirectly funded eco-terrorist attacks in
North Dakota, forming their own
outlaw camp among peaceful protestors
near Lake Oahe, N.D. The complaint
says those groups then exploited the
peaceful activities to further their
agenda by inducing and directing
destructive attacks on law enforcement
officers and Energy Transfer's
properties and personnel. r

Appeals Court Rejects
Sierra Club's Lawsuit
Against LNG Terminals

WASHINGTON-Federal judges
ruled in favor of two liquefied natural
gas projects, rejecting claims by the
Sierra Club that environmental reviews
did not consider the impacts of the
increased natural gas drilling needed to
support U.S. LNG exports.
In Sierra Club v. U.S. Department of
Energy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit denied
the group's petition that alleged the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission's approval of LNG
projects in Texas and Louisiana did not
satisfy its obligations under the Natural
Gas Act or the National Environmental
Policy Act.
According to the court's decision,
the Sierra Club said FERC failed to
examine the indirect effects of LNG
exports, including the impacts of
increased gas production to support the
Freeport LNG project in Brazoria
County, Tx.
The court decision also covers
Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass project
in Cameron Parish, La., and follows its
July 2016 ruling, which dismissed legal
challenges to FERC authorization of the
Freeport and Sabine Pass terminals as
well as the Dominion Cove project on
Chesapeake Bay (AOGR, August 2016,
pg. 22)
In its allegations that FERC failed to
fully consider the environmental
impacts of export-induced gas

production, the Sierra Club focused on
how production might affect water
resources and ozone concentrations.
Court documents say the group's main
complaint was that FERC did not
attempt to quantify the impacts or tailor
them to specific export levels.
According to the appeals court,
FERC explained it deliberately did not
perform such an impact analysis under
the rationale that tying an incremental
exports increase to an increase in gas
production, and, in turn, to an impact on
specific environmental resources, was
not reasonably foreseeable. More
importantly, the court held, even if
FERC could make reasonable
projections about the quantity of exportinduced gas production, it "was
stumped by where, at the local level,
such production might occur."
The American Petroleum Institute
says the decision affirms a predictable
and reasonable permitting process for
additional U.S. LNG export facilities.
"Moving forward, we must put in place
smart, common-sense regulations that
will continue to drive innovations in
technology that will increase
opportunities for American LNG
throughout the world," says API
Executive Vice President and Chief
Strategy Officer Marty Durbin. r

Cabot Seeks Damages
For Pollution Claims

DIMOCK, PA.-Cabot Oil & Gas
Corp. has filed a $5 million lawsuit
against a Dimock resident and his
attorneys, claiming they attempted to
extort and harass the Houston-based
company.
According to published reports,
Cabot filed a lawsuit Aug. 7 in
Susquehanna County, Pa., County
Court against Ray Kemble, the Speer
Law Firm of Missouri and Fellerman &
Ciarimboli of Pennsylvania, who sued
Cabot in April, alleging the gas
producer polluted Kemble's water
supply.
Even though Kemble withdrew his
lawsuit two months later, Cabot said it
would defend itself against frivolous
lawsuits. "Cabot will protect its rights
and pursue justice against those who
irresponsibly and maliciously abuse the
legal system," Cabot Director of
External Affairs George Stark
American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2017

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