How we got SLAPPed by Big Oil for over $300,000,000

A five-step guide from Greenpeace

Are you a climate activist? A citizen concerned for the environment? If so, this guide to SLAPP cases might be just for you!  

SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” These lawsuits are used by corporations attempting to diminish or even stop civil society activism. This five-step guide may prepare you for when your actions for a healthy environment become so impactful that Big Oil decides it’s time to SLAPP back.

While SLAPPs mostly lack any kind of merit and don’t have to result in a victory to satisfy the corporate bullies, if Big Oil does win its intimidation lawsuits against Greenpeace, it would make defending the environment (or any other form of civil engagement) so much more dangerous.

Step 1: Know the problem 

The world is experiencing unprecedented heating. Planet-warming emissions from international oil and gas companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, ENI, and Equinor are fueling floods, storms, drought, and wildfires across every continent. Ordinary people, who did little to create this crisis, are paying with their homes, their livelihoods and even with their lives.

For decades, dirty energy companies have known about climate change. And they did everything to delay and block actions to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. 

Step 2: Confront the core of the problem

Politicians anywhere know there’s nothing cheaper than promises. Over one hundred countries have adopted commitments to reduce their emissions to net zero (even if these aren’t enough). But taking action is another matter entirely. It requires confronting Big Oil – something most governments hesitate to do. 

That’s why we are campaigning against Big Oil. Our protests, investigations and litigation are pushing governments to make better commitments and follow through on them. And polluting companies are finding themselves on the losing side.

Step 3: Make them panic

In the last year alone, the UK Supreme Court has ruled against oil drilling plans, we supported Swiss Senior Women for Climate Protection in a case against their government and the world’s highest ocean court ruled in favour of small island states threatened by rising sea levels by labelling the fossil fuel industry’s emissions as marine pollution. As opposition increases, Big Oil is running out of arguments for continuing their polluting practices. So they are shifting strategy to silence critics.

Since 2022, oil and gas companies have taken intimidation lawsuits against Greenpeace organisations (read more about what SLAPPs are) to a new level: They didn’t like our reports (TotalEnergy vs. Greenpeace France, ENI vs. Greenpeace Italy and others) or the peaceful actions we took (Shell vs. Greenpeace UK and others). 

At the core of it all, Big Oil feels threatened by the power of the climate movement, which Greenpeace is part of. 

Using their eye-watering profits, they can afford to launch SLAPP cases, designed to slow us down and distract us from campaigning. 

Step 4: Get sued, big time!

The most concerning lawsuit comes from a US oil and gas pipeline company, Energy Transfer. The allegations are truly ridiculous, but Energy Transfer’s lawsuit stands out because it doesn’t just seek to intimidate. It seeks to annihilate. If Energy Transfer wins – Greenpeace in the US might cease to exist. 

The Chairman of Energy Transfer Partners is Kelcy Warren, a Texan billionaire. Under his watch, the US government launched investigations into Energy Transfer, which spilled millions of gallons of mud laced with toxic substances into a pristine wetland. 

Since 2016, Mr. Warren has also been a top donor to fossil fuels-friendly politicians.

Step 5: Fight back

Big Oil needs to know that trying to silence environmental defenders will cost it more than legal fees.

That’s why we campaign for Big Oil to stop drilling and start paying for their climate impacts. It’s the polluters in chief – not the people – who should foot the bill.

Dirty energy companies are rich. They have thousands of lawyers and have invested billions in public relations and greenwashing. But we’ve got each other –– and our movement is bigger, braver and more determined than they could ever dream of. 

Will you rise up with us?

1. Share this story. The more people talk about Big Oil’s intimidation campaign, the less likely it will succeed. Sharing helps bring into light the anti-democratic tactics of some of the world’s most polluting companies in the oil and gas industry.
2. Sign our open letter and join hundreds of organisations and tens of thousands of people who support Greenpeace and the right to speak out. 
3. Donate: Our supporters help us face up to Big Oil’s intimidation and demand that polluters – not the people – are made to pay for climate damages. 

Together we are growing in power and that is making Big Oil desperate. Join us now.

Tal Harris is the global media lead of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying