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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Greenpeace Fined for Blocking Ship in Portland

(CN) - A federal judge in Alaska on Thursday fined Greenpeace $2,500 for every hour protesters block a Royal Dutch Shell icebreaker from leaving a dock in Portland to head for the Arctic.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason's order held that Greenpeace will remain in civil contempt "so long as its activists continue to hang from the St. Johns Bridge in Portland, Oregon, with the Fennica located upstream of that bridge.

The hourly fine increases to $5,000 on July 31, $7,500 on Aug. 1, and maxes out at $10,000 per hour on Aug. 2.

Shell Offshore sued the environmental-activist group this past April, claiming the organization stalked and chased the transport vessel Blue Marlin from Malaysia to Seattle and boarded the oil rig Polar Pioneer on the high seas 750 miles northwest of Hawaii.

The oil giant sought "immediate intervention of the court to protect Shell's vessels and related Arctic assets" from Greenpeace while in Pacific Northwest ports and while doing exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska.

On Wednesday, Greenpeace joined local "kayaktivists" in Portland to block the Fennica from making its way out to sea - an action that prompted Gleason's contempt finding.

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