Closing arguments unfolded earlier in the day in the lawsuit brought by Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access against Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. The plaintiffs alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts by the Greenpeace entities to stop the pipeline.

A Texas pipeline company's lawsuit seeking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace was set to advance with opening statements Wednesday in a trial the environmental organization calls an effort to silence critics of the oil industry.

The lawsuit stems from the protests in 2016 and 2017 over the oil pipeline's planned Missouri River crossing, upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation.