DICKINSON — A North Dakota judge has nearly halved the $660 million sum Greenpeace was ordered to pay the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline in March.

A nine-person jury had found the environmental group at fault for harming Energy Transfer during anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017, as well as for publishing false statements to harm the company’s reputation.

The jury’s award included more than $200 million of compensatory damages — money to address financial harms — plus about $400 million in punitive damages.

In a Wednesday, Oct. 29, order, Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion reduced the award after finding some of the jury’s damages had no legal basis, were duplicative or had exceeded statutory caps on punitive damages. The revised amount is about $3

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