Opinion ID: 3066027
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Greenpeace Efforts to Stop Arctic Drilling

Text: Shell has presented evidence that Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace entities around the world are publicly committed to stopping Shell’s exploration of its Arctic OCS leases. Indeed, the websites of virtually all Greenpeace organizations, including Greenpeace USA, prominently feature a campaign to “stop Shell.” But “stop Shell” is not merely a campaign of words and images. Greenpeace USA also uses so-called “direct actions” to achieve its goals, and its general counsel has conceded that direct action can include illegal activity. There is evidence that Greenpeace USA and its counterparts around the globe are united in the goal of stopping Shell. When Greenpeace activists forcibly boarded an oil rig off the coast of Greenland in 2010 and used their bodies to impede a drilling operation, Greenpeace USA’s executive director described their conduct as “bold non-violent direct action” by “our activists.” Greenpeace USA similarly endorsed the forcible boarding of a Shell vessel by Greenpeace New Zealand activists in February 2012, again referring to them as “our brave activists.” The record before the district court contained evidence that Greenpeace activists used illegal “direct action” to interfere with legal oil drilling activities on many such occasions. Several incidents involved Shell vessels that were subsequently named in the district court’s preliminary injunction order and used in Shell’s 2012 Arctic OCS drilling operation. See Shell Offshore Inc. v. Greenpeace, Inc., 6 SHELL OFFSHORE V . GREENPEACE 864 F. Supp. 2d 839, 854–55 (D. Alaska 2012). These incidents were as follows:
Vessel Greenpeace USA activists unlawfully boarded the Harvey Explorer, a vessel that Shell contracted to use in its Arctic OCS operation, in May 2010. The vessel was in the Gulf of Mexico (and scheduled to depart for Alaska) when activists boarded it, unfurled banners, and painted slogans on its walls.1
Drilling Operation Shell adduced evidence that Greenpeace used direct action against another energy company, Cairn Energy, in order to prevent Cairn from conducting OCS oil and gas exploration activities in the Arctic Ocean. Greenpeace USA’s executive director described the first such action in Greenpeace International’s 2010 Annual Report: In August, our activists evaded Danish navy commanders and scaled Cairn’s exploration rig off Greenland, halting the operation – we 1 Greenpeace USA has admitted that its activists boarded the Harvey Explorer, but now argues – in passing – that the incident is “jurisdictionally irrelevant to the current case,” presumably because it took place in the Gulf of Mexico rather than the Arctic Ocean. SHELL OFFSHORE V . GREENPEACE 7 knew that, due to very tight deadlines, even a minor delay could have a major effect; Cairn didn’t find oil in 2010. Dkt. 56-19 (Ex. 1015 at 0005). In 2011, Greenpeace activists again boarded a Cairn vessel off the coast of Greenland. Approximately twenty such activists were arrested after climbing the rig, attaching themselves under the rig in a “survival pod,” and hanging a few meters from the drill bit. A news report posted on the Greenpeace Africa website quoted one of the “climbers” as saying: There’s no way Cairn can drill for oil while we’re hanging next to their drill-bit, and it’s going to be extremely difficult for them to remove our survival pod. To drill oil here would be dangerous insanity. We have to stop the Arctic oil rush. Dkt. 56-25 (Ex. 1020 at 0001). 3. Direct Action Against Shell’s Noble Discoverer Vessel In February 2012, six Greenpeace New Zealand activists illegally boarded and occupied the Shell drillship Noble Discoverer while it stopped at New Zealand on its way to the Arctic Ocean. Activists equipped with survival gear scaled the 53-meter drilling tower, secured themselves to the rig, and unfurled “stop Shell” banners. They were arrested by New Zealand authorities four days later. Greenpeace USA, in its blog, endorsed the activists’ conduct and described them as 8 SHELL OFFSHORE V . GREENPEACE “our brave activists.” Dkt. 11-14 at 2. Its website described the incident as “only the first chapter in what will undoubtedly be an epic battle.” 4. Direct Action Against Shell’s Nordica and Fennica Vessels In March 2012, Greenpeace activists boarded and occupied the Nordica and Fennica, two of Shell’s “icebreaker” support vessels, while in port in Finland. Again in May 2012, Greenpeace activists twice boarded and occupied the Nordica while it transited through Swedish and Danish waters. Activists chained themselves to the vessel, dropped weights and other objects in the water to obstruct the vessel’s propulsion, and created a human blockade using divers.