By Benoît Morenne

The oil-and-gas industry is landing blow after blow against climate activists.

The Trump administration has cranked out approvals of major projects to ship liquefied natural gas from the Gulf Coast and killed a host of climate-related initiatives. Meanwhile, Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren has won a nearly $700 million verdict against Greenpeace that could spell the end of the group's U.S. presence.

These are major setbacks for green groups. They have opposed new exports of U.S. natural gas, sought to stop new pipelines and asked the government to step up support of communities affected by climate change. The defeats herald the challenges that activists face as President Trump and his allies move to expand fossil fuels' footprint here and abroad.

Trump has directed federal agencies to speed up permits for oil and gas infrastructure, a key demand of his oil and gas donors -- including Warren, co-founder of pipeline giant Energy Transfer. The Trump team is also making deep cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, which played a central role in the Biden administration's rollout of climate policies.

Legal experts said that while green groups have dealt with previous administrations' attempts to weaken environmental standards, they are facing an extraordinary challenge under Trump 2.0.

"What we're seeing now is sort of this sense of the opportunity for revenge," said Josh Galperin, an associate professor of law at Pace University.

Oil and gas executives who have seen their projects challenged by environmentalists and mired in lengthy permitting have applauded Trump's actions.

"We've just kind of been the frog in the boiling pot, and it's just gotten worse, and worse, and worse," said Alan Armstrong, the chief executive of pipeline company Williams.

Green groups in recent years have become proficient at litigating against and protesting new pipelines, starting with Keystone XL. They have also opposed new LNG terminals on the Gulf Coast and last year notched a big victory when the Biden administration paused authorizations for new exports of U.S. natural gas.

Under Trump, their gains are rapidly unraveling.

The president on his first day in office lifted Biden's pause on LNG exports. Energy Secretary and former oil chieftain Chris Wright has already granted permits to four LNG projects, including a conditional approval to Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass 2 terminal, known as CP2.

CP2 has been a test case for supporters and opponents of new natural-gas-export facilities. More than 230 climate groups and others urged Biden to reject the project, arguing that emissions linked to LNG produced there would equate to 20 times the annual emissions of ConocoPhillips's Willow oil project in Alaska -- a project Biden approved, to green groups' dismay.

Environmental activists blasted the new authorizations, saying additional LNG exports would lock in greenhouse gas emissions for decades and harm local communities.

"The planet is enduring the highest temperatures in at least 125,000 years. These follies will make the damage worse," said prominent environmentalist Bill McKibben, the founder of advocacy group Third Act.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said it would examine the legality of Wright's approval. The environmental nonprofit has sued over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's greenlighting of the project; that agency last year set aside its authorization in order to conduct further environmental studies. Venture Global is now waiting for the agency to reaffirm the authorization and allow the firm to start construction.

Separately, green groups are contending with Trump's targeting of Biden climate initiatives. Last month, his administration began notifying workers at the EPA that they were on administrative leave, a move that was expected to affect more than 100 employees in the agency's environmental-justice and civil-rights office.

The EPA received tens of billions of dollars to spend on climate-related projects from the Biden administration's 2021 infrastructure package and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

And environmentalists suffered yet another blow on Wednesday, when a jury awarded about $670 million in damages to Energy Transfer in a lawsuit against Greenpeace.

Energy Transfer had sued Greenpeace in a North Dakota state court, accusing several of its entities of funding attacks against its Dakota Access Pipeline project, as well as of spreading misinformation about the company and its project. It said Greenpeace played a pivotal role in coordinating the 2016 protests against the pipeline, which at times turned violent.

Greenpeace said it played a supporting role in the demonstrations, which it claimed were organized by Native American groups. It said the group never took part in any property destruction or violence. These arguments failed to sway the jury, which found some of the Greenpeace entities liable for defamation and trespassing.

Greenpeace has said a legal defeat could force its U.S. affiliate to declare bankruptcy and would have a profound impact on the group's ability to address climate change.

"No matter this verdict, this is just one chapter in a broader movement to ensure environmental and climate justice and to stand in solidarity with indigenous allies," said Sushma Raman, interim executive director at Greenpeace USA. She said the group would appeal the verdict.

Michael Gerrard, a legal scholar at Columbia Law School, called the outcome "devastating" and said it would likely force groups opposed to fossil fuel projects to revisit their approach. "It's going to send a chill to many physical climate protests," he said.

Warren, whose $65 billion company owns a lattice of oil and gas conduits across the U.S., hasn't hidden his disdain for environmentalists, once saying that green activists should be "removed from the gene pool." The tycoon donated more than $15 million to Trump's last re-election effort.

Matthew Ramsey, a director on Energy Transfer's board, celebrated the win, saying the company had done an excellent job of showing how Greenpeace's actions damaged the firm.

"They screwed with the wrong people and they broke the law, and the results are the results and they're gonna have to live with the consequences," he said.

Write to Benoît Morenne at benoit.morenne@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2025 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

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