Legal Legacies: The Saguaro Project
Organizers Demand Gas Companies Sea Themselves Out to Save Whales—and their Communities.
“The Mexico Pacific - Saguaro megaproject only benefits others, but our whales, oceans, and communities will pay the price” – Whales or Gas Campaign
“There may never be a more certain prescription for destruction of a UNESCO World Heritage Site than the Saguaro Project” – NRDC
The Saguaro Project includes the proposed Sierra Madre Pipeline in Mexico and Saguaro Connector Pipeline in Texas and Saguaro Energia LNG Terminal in Sonora. The Saguaro Connector Pipeline is owned by Mexico Pacific and will be operated by ONEOK, a US oil and gas midstream operator. The Saguaro Project would export massive amounts of Permian Basin methane gas from West Texas to Mexico to export to countries around the world, primarily in Asia. At full volume, it would export up to 2.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
Source: RBN Energy LLC
Source: whalesorgas.org
The Saguaro Project has cleared major regulatory hurdles. In February 2024, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project’s Presidential Permit in February. While Biden paused approvals on new LNG export projects to countries that do not have free trade agreements (FTA), temporarily cooling the Project, Mexico Pacific secured approval from the DOE to export LNG to non-FTA countries. However, it still awaits critical financing.
This is not an isolated incident. The Saguaro Project is part of the exponential growth of LNG infrastructure worldwide, led by the US, the world’s largest exporter of LNG.
It is also part of the US’s historic legacy of harming other countries to fuel its own development: as US producers race to sell to Asia, the Saguaro Project is only one of many proposed pipelines that will transport Texas gas to LNG export terminals throughout Mexico, exploiting Mexico, its people, and its lands, as a shortcut.
Source: New York Times
The toll is significant, a new analysis from Sierra Club and Greenpeace US shows:
Direct air pollution from currently operating LNG export terminals is estimated to cause 60 premature deaths and $957 million in total health costs per year.
If all the planned terminals and expansion projects are built, these numbers would increase to 149 premature deaths and $2.33 billion in healthcare costs per year.
By 2050, the same permitted air pollutants from currently operating LNG export terminals alone are slated to yield cumulative impacts of 2,020 premature deaths and $28.7 billion in total healthcare costs, with these figures rising to 4,470 and $62.2 billion respectively in a scenario where all planned projects are built.
Devastation to Whales, Local Communities, and the Climate
The Saguaro Project threatens whales in the Gulf of California. Methane carriers transporting millions of tons of methane gas would pass through prime whale breeding territory and potentially collide with them. Such collisions are already the leading cause of whale deaths, despite a significant underreporting of incidents. This impact is compounded by noise pollution: whales rely heavily on sound, and the noise from ships can disorient them and drive them away from their habitats.
The Gulf of California is not only a critical area for whales but also for multiple species and the livelihood of thousands of Mexican families. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Gulf of California is home to 900 fish species, 90% of which are endemic to the Gulf. Its fishing production represents about half of Mexico's total catch.
The project also jeopardizes local economies and marine wildlife tourism. “The economy of thousands of families in La Paz depends on a living ocean, free from pollution and maritime traffic. This project, like others, far from fulfilling its promise of development, threatens the present and future livelihood of the population,” says Carlos Mancilla, director of the La Paz-based organization BCSicletos.
With the potential to export 2.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, the Saguaro Project will also exacerbate the climate crisis.
Communities Groups Push Back
In a campaign led by 30 Mexican organizations, local communities are calling upon the President of Mexico to cancel the project with a simple but powerful question: "Whales or Gas?" Rooted in the community, the campaign leverages advocacy, education, and artwork to build power and engage decisionmakers.
On January 29, 2025, the campaign organized "Ballena Fest" in the heart of Mexico City alongside Conexiones Climáticas and Greenpeace, where they delivered 200,000 signatures from the campaign directly to the Palacio Nacional, in a direct address to President Sheinbaum. Rooted in hope and celebration, the joint collective action was organized with musicians, batucada (a substyle of samba), artists and people of all ages dressed in marine species costumes. This action built off an earlier campaign by Conexiones Climáticas, which engaged primary school students to educate them about El Proyecto Saguaro and leveraged the power of art in activism by displaying artwork created by the children in the main Zócalo (square) of Mexico City.
Ballena Fest in the Zócalo of Mexico City against the Saguaro Project
Credit: Gustavo Graf
“Ballenas o Gas” campaign mural. Source: whalesorgas.org
Whales or Gas Informational Talk. Source: whalesorgas.org
Border towns in Texas are rallying together to fight against the buildout of pipelines and flaring in their community. And the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas is speaking out about the threat the Saguaro Connector Pipeline poses to their sacred sites.
Community organizing is flanked by legal action. In June 2024, Sierra Club and Public Citizen sued FERC for improperly limiting its analysis of the project to the 1000-foot connector pipeline at the US-Mexico border, while neglecting to consider the full impact of the much longer main pipeline. Earthjustice and Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) submitted a letter urging the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to examine the distinct harms associated with exporting U.S. natural gas through Mexico in its forthcoming revision of its environmental analysis.
Whales or Gas? Law Firms Say Gas.
The companies behind the Saguaro Project have grown with the aid of familiar firms Davis Polk, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Paul Weiss, and Wachtel.
In 2023, Kirkland & Ellis advised OneOk Inc. on its agreement to buy Magellan Midstream Partners LP in a $18.8 billion cash-and-stock transaction that would create one of the US’s largest oil and natural gas pipeline operators. Latham & Watkins said it advised Magellan and called the deal the second-largest US public company merger so far in 2023. In 2024, Latham & Watkins helped OneOk acquire other oil and gas entities in $3.3 billion and $2.6 billion dollar deals.
While not directly involved in the Saguaro Project, they have fueled the growth and profit off the backs of fossil fuel corporations.
As coal winds down, we have a critical opportunity to transition to a sustainable and equitable future. The growth of LNG threatens this. The Trump Administration is posed to lift restrictions on LNG the Biden Administration put in place, potentially clearing the way for not only the Saguaro Project but also others pending approval.
So as frontline communities continue to organize against fossil fuel companies and the law firms that support them, we again ask a simple but straightforward question.
