30 Facts About Greenpeace USA

Greenpeace USA is the United States affiliate of Greenpeace International, an environmental nonprofit organization that spawned a social movement inspired by direct actions on the high seas to stop whaling and nuclear testing.

The organization relies on donations from members, refuses corporate contributions and refrains from endorsing political candidates, though in 2020 Greenpeace USA issued climate scorecards for presidential candidates and ranked them from best to worst on climate.

Since its inception in the 1970s, Greenpeace USA has waged a series of corporate campaigns, street protests and sting operations focused on de-escalating the arms race, drawing connections between the climate crisis and militarism, stopping deforestation, ending fossil fuels, preventing plastic pollution and other issues.

Greenpeace USA is a nonprofit 501 lobby group that seeks “to change current environmental policies and practices” through “grassroots lobbying for various legislative initiatives.

The Greenpeace Fund makes grants, conducts education campaigns and funds research, including a report on social media companies' lack of transparency in addressing climate change disinformation.

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In 2020 Greenpeace USA's budget was approximately $40 million with hundreds of people on payroll.

Greenpeace USA is one of 26 national and regional organizations that are members of the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International.

Greenpeace USA was first organized in the United States as separate chapters in 1975, when Greenpeace USA San Francisco opened, followed by groups in Hawaii, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, and the Great Lakes region.

The conflict was resolved and a trial averted when an international Greenpeace council was formed with representation from each country to pay off the $250-thousand dollars of debt owed by the Vancouver office.

Greenpeace USA subsequently achieved a total ban on nuclear dumping through the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter.

In 2014, following the departure of Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA hired Annie Leonard, a single mother, as co-executive director.

Greenpeace USA travelled the world tracking waste disposal and investigating companies, work that led to the Basel Convention, an international agreement that reduces the exportation of waste from wealthier countries to poorer nations.

In 2021, Greenpeace USA selected Ebony Twilley Martin as co-executive director, making her the first Black woman executive director of a national environmental organization in the United States.

Greenpeace USA based its rankings on the candidates' support for a Green New Deal and an end to fossil fuels.

In March, 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Greenpeace USA activists set out in boats to intercept a 50,000 ton Greek vessel delivering Russian oil to the port of New York.

From 2011 to 2013, Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA, participated in multiple White House protests demanding President Obama order a halt to construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

In 2021, Greenpeace USA applauded President's Biden executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, while urging the President to eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies.

Greenpeace USA activists had joined with indigenous tribes and thousands of environmentalists from around the country to block construction of the pipeline.

The lawsuit alleged Greenpeace USA misled the public with false claims about the Standing Rock Sioux tribes' sacred sites and the likelihood the pipeline would contaminate the Missouri River in North Dakota.

The oil company blamed declining oil prices for the decision, though Greenpeace USA attributed Shell's turn-around to pressure from environmentalists.

In 2021, Greenpeace USA joined a flotilla of kayaks and small boats outside of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin's yacht in Washington DC to draw attention to Manchin's refusal to support Congress' climate-friendly reconciliation package.

In 2021 Greenpeace USA's "Project Unearthed" released video clips of an Exxon Mobil executive revealing the oil company's lobbying tactics to weaken President Biden's infrastructure plan.

In 2015, the New York Times reported professors at Princeton and Pennsylvania State University got caught in a sting operation when Greenpeace USA employees, posing as energy company representatives, persuaded the professors to accept money to tout the benefits of coal and carbon emissions.

Lawrence Carter, a Greenpeace USA employee involved in the sting, said the purpose of the charade was to“unravel the story” of industry's role in climate change denial.

Greenpeace USA opposes a space-based missile shield, arguing the Star Wars program escalates the arms race and increases the likelihood of nuclear war.

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Greenpeace USA had charged that Walmart employs "unlawful, unfair, and deceptive business practices" in falsely labeling and promoting private-label plastic products as recyclable.

Judge Maxine Chesney said Greenpeace USA lacked standing because the organization never believed Walmart's claims to begin with, and so therefore could not persuade the court that Greenpeace had been misled.

In 2021, Greenpeace USA released best to worst rankings on 20 grocery chains' elimination of single-use plastics that pollute the ocean.

In general, Greenpeace USA was pessimistic, saying "US retailers are moving at a snail's pace" to dispense with single-use plastics that are hard to recycle.

In 2006, after receiving complaints from Public Interest Watch Group, an organization funded, in part, by Exxon Mobil, the Internal Revenue Service conducted an audit of Greenpeace USA Following the months-long audit, the IRS informed the environmental organization that it could continue to operate as a non-profit entity exempt from federal income taxes.