As all of you who watched Taylor Sheridan’s Landman series know the primary antagonist in the TV series’ first season was the Mexican Cartel. The season began and ended with the Landman’s main character, Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thorton), getting the shit beat out of him by the Cartel. Of course, we all know that Landmanis a fictional story, but for any good fiction to keep us entertained, it needs a violent antagonist that we can all hate.

In all my years of working as a real Landman in the Permian Basin the only cartel that I encountered was the New Mexican Environmental Cartel – the liberals in Santa Fe who love all things not human. These “Watermelons” – green on the outside and red on the inside – were more interested in saving sand dune lizards and prairie chickens than providing a good education for the children of New Mexico, which was largely funded by the revenues from the state’s oil & gas production (Note: Forty percent of the State of New Mexico’s budget was funded by oil & gas).

However, the real life “Environmental Cartel” is not limited to the “Watermelons” in New Mexico, it is a sophisticated and well financed group of international organizations, one of which is Greenpeace International.

A more accurate picture of how this “Environmental Cartel” works was revealed in a lawsuit filed in North Dakota District Court in 2019 by Energy Transfer LP et al (Plaintiffs) against Greenpeace International et al (Defendants), which involved Greenpeace’s involvement in the purported “non-violent direct action” (NVDA) taken against the construction of Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline by its protesters.

Dakota Access Pipeline

In July 2014, Energy Transfer announced the development of its Dakota Access Pipeline (“DAPL”) for the purpose of transporting crude oil from the Bakken oil field in northwest North Dakota to the refineries in Nederland, Texas. For the next two years, Energy Transfer worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the State of North Dakota to obtain approval of the Environmental Assessment (“EA”). According to documents filed in District Court by Energy Transfer, the DAPL traversed private land for ~99% of its route. The one exception was where the DAPL crossed federally owned and regulated waters under Lake Oahe and the adjacent lands. It should also be noted that the pipeline route was located half mile north of the northern boundary of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and did not cross reservation lands (see screen shot of an excerpt of court filing below).

In July 2016, the US Army Corps of Engineers approved the EA, which allowed the construction of the DAPL under Lake Oahe. No sooner had the EA been approved, than the “Environmental Cartel,” led by Greenpeace, deployed its troops to stop the construction of the pipeline.

Greenpeace

Greenpeace International is “an independent global campaigning network,” based in Amsterdam, consisting of 25 national and regional Greenpeace organizations. Greenpeace USA is its national organization in America, which is comprised of Greenpeace Inc. and Greenpeace Fund Inc. The interesting thing to note is that Greenpeace Fund Inc. is set up as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, a status which allows tax deductibility for donations by US donors; while Greenpeace Inc. is a “social welfare organization” engaged in lobbying and advocacy, which also means that it can organize and stage protests. So, one organization raises money through tax deductible donations and then channels the money to the other organization to do the dirty work by engaging in what they referred to as “non-violent direct action” (NVDA) protests. [1]

As we’ll see later in Energy Transfer’s court filings, an NVDA protest can be anything but non-violent!

Red Warrior Camp

As alleged by Energy Transfer in the following excerpts from their First Amended Complaint filed with the District Court, Greenpeace not only organized and funded people to “peacefully” protest under its own banner but also funded and help train a group known as the Red Warrior Camp, who were not known for “peacefully” protesting the DAPL. (Please note that the excerpts from said Complaint present Energy Transfer’s side of the lawsuit and the veracity their presentation of the facts must be proved in Court.)

The Red Warrior Camp incited violence…

Inciting violence resulted in violence…

Clean Up the Mess

In early 2017, President Trump issued a memorandum ordering the pipeline project’s completion, and the National Guard was called in to evict the protesters. When it was all said and done, the pipeline was completed and began to transport crude oil by June of 2017.

As might be expected, the “Watermelon” protesters that wanted to protect the environment left behind 48 million pounds of trash for the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services to cleanup at a cost of more than one-million-dollars!

The Verdict

On March 19, 2025, a jury of nine North Dakota citizens rendered a verdict in favor of Energy Transfer LP et al (Plaintiffs) and awarded a $667 million judgement against Greenpeace et al (Defendants).

Of course, Greenpeace filed an appeal and used the Court’s judgement as a call for more donations to fund their “Warrior Defense Fund” to continue the fight…

Postscript

“There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.”

- Michel de Montaigne

Although my intention was to write this story about the “Environmental Cartel,” the more I wrote, the more I thought about how this story represented a larger danger to our society – let’s call it the “Existential Threat.”

In today’s world, it seems like everything is labeled as an “Existential Threat.” Fossil Fuels are an Existential Threat that may cause Climate Change. President Trump and Elon Musk are Existential Threats that may destroy our Democracy. Russia is an Existential Threat that may take over the world. White people are an Existential Threat that… well they just are!

When someone or something is labeled as an “Existential Threat,” then fear becomes the primary motivator, there is no room for compromise, it’s time to take off the gloves and do whatever it takes to eliminate the Existential Threat! Suddenly our Right to Free Speech is not sufficient to address the threat, and we must invoke our Right to Commit Violence. After all, the “Existential Threat” must be eliminated!

In the story about Greenpeace’s efforts to stop Energy Transfer’s construction of the DAPL, Greenpeace wasn’t satisfied with invoking their Right to Free Speech because they were afraid that speech alone might not achieve their intended outcome, which was to eliminate the “Existential Threat” of fossil fuels. So, they decided to invoke violence by funding the Red Warrior Camp to do their dirty work.

But hasn’t that been a reoccurring pattern? First, label someone or something as an “Existential Threat,” then use that as a justification to commit violence to eliminate the threat.

· The Black Lives Matter’s “peaceful protests” to eliminate the “Existential Threat” of white supremacy turned into violent riots that resulted in billions of dollars of damage to our cities.

· The assassination attempts on Donald Trump to eliminate the “Existential Threat” that he would destroy our Democracy.

· The violent attacks on Tesla dealerships and owners of Tesla cars to eliminate the “Existential Threat” of Elon Musk and DOGE’s effort to bring efficiency to our government bureaucracy and get rid of the waste and corruption.

In my humble opinion, it is an “Existential Threat” to condone violent behavior that destroys personal and public property or causes bodily harm to individuals, and then claim that such violent behavior was protected as a Right of Free Speech.

The End

[1] EnvironMENTAL’s Substack NVDA Gets Pricey 3/29/2025

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