FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

5:00 p.m. CT, August 22, 2017
Contact: Ed Fallon at (515) 238-6404 or ed@boldiowa.com

BOLD IOWA CITED IN OIL COMPANY’S SWEEPING LAWSUIT
Allegations of “racketeering” absurd, claims Bold Iowa’s leader

Des Moines, IA — In response to the 187-page lawsuit by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) against Greenpeace and numerous other NGOs, Bold Iowa’s director, Ed Fallon, labeled it “a corporate witch hunt” and “a desperate, insidious effort to silence public opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) and other fossil-fuel expansion projects.”

“Clearly, our movement has had quite an impact on ETPs bottom line,” said Fallon, whose organization, Bold Iowa, is mentioned frequently throughout ETP’s lawsuit. ETP claims that the campaign to stop DAPL has cost it perhaps $300 million (Item 364). Item 24 of the suit says, “The damage to Plaintiffs’ relationships with the capital markets has been substantial, impairing access to financing and increasing their cost of capital and ability to fund future projects at economical rates.”

Three of Fallon’s blogs from his visit to Standing Rock in November and December of 2016 are referenced (page 154), and Bold Iowa’s Bold Action Teams are discussed in Item 316 of the lawsuit: “To stop construction, Bold Iowa organized and trained ‘Bold Action Teams’ (‘BAT’) which consisted of teams of five people who mobilize repeatedly to prevent construction until the point that the BATs were threatened with arrests. Bold Iowa members trespassed on live construction zones and physically prevented construction by lying in front of bulldozers or other construction equipment. Bold Iowa combined the BAT method with regular press releases openly touting the effectiveness of the BAT method of shutting down construction. BAT disruptions ultimately resulted in dozens of arrests.”

“It’s encouraging to know that our efforts had an impact,” continued Fallon. “At the same time, any American who values freedom of speech and the right to assemble should find it chilling that a huge corporation with seemingly bottomless pockets can use its clout to try to silence dissent through the courts.”

“For me, a lawsuit from ETP seems to have become an annual event,” concluded Fallon. Last August, ETP sued Bold Iowa and Iowa CCI, and Fallon and CCI’s Adam Mason specifically, to try to stop the two organizations from organizing peaceful protests and nonviolent civil disobedience. The lawsuit was dismissed by a district court judge in Polk County, Iowa.

Bold Iowa was formerly part of the national Bold Alliance and is now an independent non-profit organization that addresses the climate crisis, opposes the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure projects, promotes renewable energy and works to build a broad, urban/rural coalition of Iowans concerned about climate, land, water, property rights and greater accountability and integrity in politics. The organization’s new website is under construction and will be available in the near future.

Ed Fallon served in the Iowa Legislature for 14 years before running unsuccessfully for governor in 2006 and US Congress in 2008. Since 2009, he has hosted a talk show, The Fallon Forum, which airs on five radio stations and is available online.

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