Defending the World’s Irreplaceable Natural Resources

The Gulf of California holds more than a third of all the marine mammal species on earth. UNESCO calls it a World Heritage site; biologists call it a nursery, the place where blue whales return to raise their calves in some of the cleanest water in the Pacific. But a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal would industrialize it and cause irreparable harm to this pristine area. ClientEarth USA is part of a coalition of activists working to stop that from happening. 

ClientEarth is an environmental legal organization whose mission is to hold corporations accountable for a livable planet. In the Gulf, the project it is fighting is Saguaro Energia LNG, a $15 billion LNG export terminal proposed for the coast of Sonora, Mexico, by a U.S. company. If built, it would make Mexico the fourth-largest LNG exporter in the world. 

The harm would not end when construction did, says Hana Heineken, a ClientEarth attorney. Enormous tankers would run a route that overlaps directly with the whale migration, the same whales that pass the Santa Barbara coast each winter. “Even if they tried to divert away from the whales,” she says, “it would be impossible.” Engines would fill the water with noise and pollution, significantly raise the risk of deadly collisions and spills, and crowd the last refuge of the vaquita porpoise, the world’s most endangered marine mammal, of which roughly 10 remain. 

Beyond the risk to biodiversity, there is the climate factor. LNG is almost entirely composed of methane gas, which is 80 times more warming than carbon dioxide. This LNG would be piped from Texas, and by many analyses, methane leaks and vents along the LNG supply chain would make the gas dirtier than coal. 

Using Law to Hold Banks Accountable 

ClientEarth’s approach is to leverage corporate and financial law to pressure the banks whose money the project depends on. ClientEarth attorneys like Heineken demonstrate to banks like JPMorgan Chase that it doesn’t make financial sense or legal sense to fund these types of projects.

The Saguaro campaign is one expression of a strategy ClientEarth is proving works elsewhere. In Colorado, the organization is pressing a case over so-called zombie wells, the abandoned oil and gas wells that keep polluting the air, water, and land long after the drilling stops. The case now has other jurisdictions asking about filing cases of their own, even before a verdict. 

For ClientEarth, that outward ripple is the point. “It’s to pave the way for other law firms to run with it,” says U.S. Director of Major Gifts, Allie Butkiewicz. ClientEarth knows that stopping these destructive projects takes all of us – attorneys, communities, and supporters. Together, they send a clear message that our environment is not a sacrifice zone for profit.