The environmental nonprofit Greenpeace was under the microscope in a North Dakota trial this year. Now the organization is calling attention to the environmental impacts of the pipeline company that brought it to court and won a $345 million judgment. 

A new report released Wednesday identifies oil spills, gas releases, air pollution and other incidents at Energy Transfer’s web of pipelines and infrastructure nationwide, including subsidiaries and joint ventures. More incidents occurred in Texas, where Energy Transfer is headquartered, than any other state, according to the report. 

The report, titled Bad Neighbor, follows a March 2025 jury verdict that found Greenpeace USA liable for damages during protests against Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access pipeline. Greenpeace calls the case a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP, designed to silence criticism of the company. Greenpeace’s report on Dallas-based Energy Transfer summarizes public information on the company’s environmental record and calls for defending the rights to protest and free speech.

Today’s Climate

Tuesdays

A once-a-week digest of the most pressing climate-related news, written by Kiley Price and released every Tuesday.

Breaking News

Don’t miss a beat. Get a daily email of our original, groundbreaking stories written by our national network of award-winning reporters.

ICN Sunday Morning

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and ICN reporters as they discuss one of the week’s top stories.

Justice & Health

A digest of stories on the inequalities that worsen the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities.

“Greenpeace’s bread and butter has always been exposing and bearing witness to air pollution, water pollution, the climate catastrophe, and the impacts on people and ecosystems,” said Tim Donaghy, the report’s author and Greenpeace USA’s research director. “This is what Greenpeace was built for.”

Energy Transfer denies that the lawsuit aimed to stifle free speech. In a statement, the company called the guilty verdict “a win for all the law-abiding Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law.”

In its report, Greenpeace referenced what it called four “major disasters” associated with Energy Transfer and its affiliates since September 2024, including two in Texas and one offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenpeace also reported that of the 300 spills on pipelines owned by Energy Transfer and its affiliates between 2018 and 2025, almost two thirds occurred in Texas. The report said that Energy Transfer’s vast network of infrastructure in the Permian Basin is emitting millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases a year. 

The report does not attempt to compare Energy Transfer to other companies, but shows the wide impact of one company that holds a large market share. Energy Transfer transports approximately 30 percent of U.S. natural gas and 40 percent of U.S. crude oil production.

Energy Transfer has been fined more than $100 million by federal, state and local regulators over the last three decades, according to the report. Greenpeace argues this is a “cost of doing business” for a company that in 2024 reported annual revenue of $80 billion.

“There is something wrong with a system that lets polluters off the hook but penalizes those who oppose them,” the report said. 

“We are aware of the report, which recycles publicly available information in an attempt by Greenpeace to manufacture headlines,” Energy Transfer responded in a statement. “Furthermore, to intentionally misrepresent the data, the report falsely attributes to Energy Transfer issues with pipelines in which we hold only passive ownership, and which are operated by other companies.”

In the report, Greenpeace explains its methodology in detail. The report includes pipeline incidents from joint ventures where Energy Transfer is not the pipeline operator, but the company holds a greater than 25 percent interest. Greenpeace also included incidents for subsidiaries where Energy Transfer is the pipeline operator.

“Energy Transfer has a complex corporate structure that has changed significantly over time,” the report states. “The latest 10-K for FY 2024 lists over 400 named subsidiaries and several joint ventures. This makes the compilation and interpretation of past events complicated.”

Greenpeace on the Offense

Energy Transfer brought its suit against Greenpeace in 2017, alleging the organization defamed the company while supporting protesters who damaged property. Earlier this year a North Dakota jury found Greenpeace liable to pay $667 million in damages to Energy Transfer. In October, a judge cut that amount to about $345 million. 

Post-trial motions are ongoing. Greenpeace spokesperson Madison Carter said the nonprofit plans to ask for a new trial if the court issues a final judgement that does not satisfy the organization. If that fails, Greenpeace can appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

Greenpeace USA’s Donaghy said that the lawsuit goes beyond the defendants. 

“If people don’t feel free to speak out against those who are polluting their air and water, and whose business model is driving us towards climate collapse, then what chance do we really have in enacting solutions to these problems?” he said.

Greenpeace said it compiled the report using public databases and records, which lawyers and fact checkers reviewed. It was also shared with Energy Transfer before publication. 

Energy Transfer is primarily a pipeline company, transporting oil and natural gas from areas of production to facilities where it is processed and refined. The company has also expanded into the liquified natural gas industry and has extensive offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenpeace said it relied on Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) data to compile liquid spills and releases of hazardous gas.

Between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 30, 2025, Energy Transfer and its affiliates, joint ventures and subsidiaries, including Sunoco, reported 300 spills of hazardous liquids, or one every nine days, according to the report. Nearly 250 of those spills involved oil, totalling 31,860 barrels, or 1.34 million gallons. 

“Fossil fuels are inherently polluting and it does seem that oil spills are continuously happening,” said Donaghy. “If you look at the data collected by PHMSA and across the industry, there’s just a drumbeat of small spills and large spills over time.”

During the same time period from 2018 to 2025, Energy Transfer and its affiliates reported 126 natural gas releases, according to PHMSA data cited in the report. More than 5,000 million cubic feet (MMcf) of gas were released in these incidents. 

In Energy Transfer’s 2024 Corporate Responsibility report, the company said the total number of hazardous liquid accidents off its property decreased 21 percent from 2023 and were down 31 percent from the five-year average.

The largest gas releases occurred on the offshore Sea Robin gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico in two incidents in January 2025 and a third in May 2025, according to the report. The three leaks released a total of more than 3,000 MMcf of gas. All three incidents are among the five biggest gas releases reported to PHMSA by any company since 2010, according to the report. 

An explosion at Energy Transfer’s Justice pipeline in Deer Park, Texas, on Sep. 16, 2024, was the largest release of hazardous liquids that Energy Transfer has reported to PHMSA since 2018, federal records show. More than 38,793 barrels of highly volatile liquids, which include natural gas liquids, were released. 

The explosion occurred when a car slammed into a pipeline valve in the Houston suburb. The vehicle was engulfed in flames and the driver died on the scene. The death was later ruled a suicide.

Four people were injured and five homes were damaged, according to local news reports. A shelter-in-place order covered more than 1,000 nearby homes, businesses and schools.

Months later, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas regulator, reported that it had found no safety violations at the pipeline and would not issue fines.

The fire burned for more than three days as the pipeline depressurized. Energy Transfer reported releasing 18,312 pounds of nitrous oxides and 383,214 pounds of volatile organic compounds.

Air Alliance Houston, a nonprofit focused on the health impacts of air pollution, called for a better accounting of the incident and improved communication with local communities.

“There is a risk that comes with having pipelines in densely populated areas,” Inyang Uwak, the organization’s research and policy director, told Inside Climate News. “There can be fires and explosions that result in air pollution and chemical exposure.”

Uwak, an epidemiologist, added: “Pipelines are often considered a low-risk method of transporting hazardous compounds. However, accidents do happen, and we need to proactively prevent these accidents, particularly with above-ground pipelines.”

Energy Transfer added new concrete barricades around the pipeline valve site after the incident, according to Railroad Commission documents.

Katherine Culbert, a process safety engineer in Houston, said it raised a “red flag” that the Railroad Commission said it found no safety violations after investigating. Culbert is running for the Republican nomination for a seat on the Railroad Commission. 

“I have worked for pipeline companies,” she said. “Every company has something where they could improve. If people are dying, there is something that could be done to make it better.”

Railroad Commission spokesperson Bryce Dubee said that less than half of 1 percent of reported hazardous liquid incidents were caused by vehicle damage. “Whatever the cause is, we thoroughly investigate each incident,” he said.

Energy Transfer’s largest crude oil spill since 2018 occurred on May 5, 2025, in Arlington, Texas, according to the Greenpeace report. The spill released a reported 6,600 barrels, or 277,200 gallons, of oil underground. The oil entered a broken sewer pipe and flowed to Fort Worth’s Village Creek wastewater treatment plant a few miles away. Oil appeared in several areas of the treatment plant and a popular birding area was closed. Cleanup costs were estimated at $5 million.

The report goes on to document greenhouse gas emissions from Energy Transfer’s operations in the Permian Basin, worker safety violations and other lawsuits that the company has brought challenging the constitutionality of pipeline safety enforcement.

“We’re not able to say if Energy Transfer is worse or best [among pipeline companies],” said Greenpeace’s Donaghy. “But we can say that their operations are causing impacts for communities, and that makes them a bad neighbor.”

Martha Pskowski

Reporter, El Paso, Texas

Martha Pskowski covers climate change and the environment in Texas from her base in El Paso. She was previously an environmental reporter at the El Paso Times. She began her career as a freelance journalist in Mexico, reporting for outlets including The Guardian and Yale E360. Martha has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College and a master’s degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies from New York University. She is a former Fulbright research fellow in Mexico. Martha can be reached on Signal at psskow.33.

• 
  @psskow
  
• 
  [email protected]