Government Offers Legal Funds To Fight Greenpeace

Greenpeace has found evidence that appears to indicate the Australian government offered to subsidize the Southern Pacific Petroleum (SPP) company if it took legal action against the environmentalists. An amount of $36.4 million was to be given in return for a promise from SPP. The evidence, an email,

[S]uggests the Government wanted SPP to take legal action against the environment group to ensure the company could sell its products freely on the market.

The email refers to "Greenpeace's activities ... which ... resulted in SPP's inability to sell its product domestically".

The Federal Government gave subsidies to SPP to help with its export sales because the company was unable to get subsidies for domestic sales because they were unable to find Australian buyers for their oil.

SPP said this was because of Greenpeace's campaign against shale oil, which the group says generates greenhouse gas emissions.

So, it appears that Greenpeace is spewing an end-of-the-world global warming message and effectively scaring away customers from SPP. Since the solvency of the energy supplier is at stake, the government has offered to help with their legal bills.

Apparently, from the perspective of Greenpeace at least, the government shouldn't be spending taxpayer dollars in this manner.