Prism40%
Where the desert meets the sea, a pipeline threatens the Gulf of California 15%
By Rachel Herring24% Arantza Caudillo-Álvarez24%
7/29/2026, 9:08:37 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Confirmation Bias, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 14.3% saturation with 307 hits. Analysis detected 2,207 faulty-reasoning hits from 2,152 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 26.2% and a BS Rank of 15% (21,862 of 25,563 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 85.50% of the article peer group.
In Northwest Mexico, where the Sonoran Desert meets the Gulf of California, desert mountains plunge into warm, turquoise water.
This coast is one of the most biologically productive marine ecosystems on Earth, supporting high concentrations of marine life and fisheries.
Since time immemorial, the Indigenous Comcáac community have maintained deep cultural and subsistence ties to the sea.
Today, alongside these enduring relationships, local fishers dive for seafood destined for acclaimed restaurants.
Threatening this beautiful landscape and the health of its diverse ecosystem is a proposed network of cross-border pipelines connecting to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export corridor, raising concerns from Comcáac community members, fishers, and environmental groups about the impacts on marine habitats and cultural traditions.
A project decades in the making
The U.S.-based company Mexico Pacific Limited LLC (MPL), which has no prior history in energy development, may transform the Sonoran coast into one of North America’s largest LNG export hubs.
Relying on a tentative cross-border network of pipelines, MPL intends to move Permian Basin natural gas from the Southwest to the coastal fishing village of Puerto Libertad, located 125 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border in Sonora State.
Here, the gas would be reliquified for shipment through the Gulf of California, ultimately ending up in Asia’s energy-hungry markets.
The project was first proposed in 2006 as an LNG import terminal developed by the Mexican-owned company Terminal GNL de Sonora S. de R.L. de CV.
In the years since, it’s undergone fundamental changes in scale, ownership, and function.
In 2017, ownership of the project transferred to Mexico Pacific Land Holdings, an affiliate of MPL, which converted the facility from an import terminal into an export terminal relying on existing pipeline infrastructure supplied by U.S. natural gas.
In the years since, the company has sought to build completely new infrastructure for what is now called the Saguaro Energía project in Puerto Libertad.
The plan for the pipeline now starts at the Saguaro Connector pipeline in Texas, connects to the Sierra Madre pipeline traversing Mexico, and ends at the LNG export terminal.
Tankers will then load LNG at the Saguaro Energía port and travel down the Gulf of California before heading to buyers in Asia.
If approved, MPL and its investors stand to make billions of dollars in LNG exports, while U.S. gas producers and contractors will more broadly benefit from expanded fossil fuel infrastructure, stretching from West Texas to the Gulf of California.
But not if Indigenous communities, environmental organizations, local residents, and conservation advocates have their way.
A large coalition is working to stop the project based on the impacts it will have on marine ecosystems and climate change.
As legal challenges continue on both sides of the border, the outcome has the potential to shape the future of global energy development.
Doug Hayes, a senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, explained that regulatory oversight of the project is split between the two countries.
In the U.S., the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) oversees the Saguaro Connector pipeline, and the Department of Energy (DOE) regulates the export of U.S. natural gas.
In Mexico, agencies such as the Ministry of Energy oversee the environmental permits.
“It’s a theme to segment the project into as many little pieces, minimize federal jurisdiction, and minimize the scope of the view that [agencies] have,” Hayes said.
Making matters more complicated is MPL’s ownership.
Of particular concern is MPL’s majority owner—an unknown U.S. investor MPL refuses to name.
In a statement addressed to the DOE, a coalition of public interest and environmental organizations, including Sierra Club, formally complained about the secrecy of MPL’s majority stakeholder, arguing that MPL’s various ownership changes are intended to obscure the identities of those controlling the project.
MPL maintains that identifying the majority stakeholder “could result in an invasion of privacy and potential harassment of the individual and entities.”
MPL did not respond to questions from Prism.
There are other major concerns with the project.
According to Sierra Club, the DOE’s greenhouse gas analyses may not fully account for the project’s cross-border supply chain, in which U.S. gas is transported to Mexico, liquefied, and then re-exported overseas.
The Trump administration’s DOE maintains that natural gas produces fewer life-cycle emissions than coal, and that LNG exports could lower global emissions when displacing coal overseas.
This isn’t exactly accurate, according to Hayes.
“Even when you compare [natural gas] to coal, it’s not necessarily cleaner or less greenhouse gas-intensive,” Hayes said.
He noted that the growing affordability of renewable energy sources across Asia also means U.S. natural gas may compete with, or even displace, renewables beyond coal.
Environmental groups argue that a project of this scale could lock in decades of additional fossil fuel demand.
According to DOE filings, MPL has requested authorization to annually export roughly 621 billion cubic feet of gas.
While the legal battle surrounding the project wages on, locals are feeling less than hopeful.
One Puerto Libertad resident told Prism that they feel “powerless” to stop the pipeline.
Running a fishing cooperative that provides seafood to some of Mexico’s most acclaimed restaurants, Anthony, who is using a pseudonym for fear of retribution, said the pipeline fight has serious implications for his livelihood.
LNG terminals developed in international ports increase pollution in immediate surroundings, forcing fishers to seek new fishing grounds.
According to the international environmental advocacy group the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), marine diversity is in the crosshairs of MPL’s pipeline and LNG terminal.
One restaurant has already warned Anthony’s cooperative that it will end their commercial relationship if the LNG terminal moves forward.
Local fishers work together to untangle fishing nets along the Gulf of California coast.
Credit: Rachel Herring
In a likely effort to curry favor with locals, Anthony said representatives from MPL consulted with a small group of residents to discuss potential jobs in the energy sector, though fishers were allegedly not included in this outreach.
Even as a relatively small town—with just 2,750 residents —the fishing industry is a major driver of Puerto Libertad’s economy.
MPL has long maintained that its project will create hundreds of permanent jobs near Puerto Libertad and thousands more during construction.
However, locals such as Anthony question whether those benefits will remain once construction crews leave.
Broadly, the community has grown disenchanted with the promise of new jobs.
Down the road leading to Puerto Libertad, a solar farm extends over 2,905 acres and smokestacks from a thermoelectrical plant greet the horizon.
Anthony said the solar jobs for residents only lasted around two years, and only the out-of-town executives still maintain their positions.
Comcáac relationship to land and sea
Just south of Puerto Libertad, the Comcáac territory extends almost 100 miles of shoreline in the state of Sonora and includes the islands of Tiburón and San Esteban.
On the shore of a shallow channel, Comcáac elder Humberto Romero Monroy identifies species and artifacts used by his ancestors and demonstrates a traditional fishing technique by chewing an ironwood seed and dropping it into the estuary.
The seed’s oil spreads across the surface, improving visibility beneath the water to easily locate fish.
Along the edge of the estuary, the sand is marked by broken shells that serves as evidence that Romero Monroy’s ancestors were here, using the shells to fillet their catch of the day.
The Comcáac are staunchly opposed to the LNG terminal, and like Anthony, Romero Monroy believes the project will pollute the Gulf and that the transient energy jobs will not provide safety or security.
Most of all, Romero Monroy is concerned about how the pipeline may destroy the cacti forest.
The Saguaro cactus is only found in the Sonoran Desert between the U.S.
Southwest and the northwest of Mexico.
A defining symbol of the region, these cacti forests sustain over 100 other plant and animal species, and the cacti’s survival reflects the health of its ecosystem.
Saguaro cacti, found only in the Sonoran Desert, dominate the landscape of northwestern Mexico.
Credit: Rachel Herring
The Saguaro currently face a wide array of threats.
For example, a 2023 Government Accountability Office report on border wall construction in the Sonoran Desert documented toppled Saguaro cacti and habitat fragmentation.
Ecologists have also noted that desert ecosystems recover slowly after pipeline disturbance, with some plants requiring more than 50 years to recover.
The Saguaro cactus is more than just a keystone species for the Comcáac community.
“The cactus and the Comcáac are neighbors,” Romero Monroy said.
In Comcáac cosmology, their direct ancestors were giants who created their land, communicated through song, and intermarried with the Comcáac people.
In the Indigenous Comcáac language, they are called “xica coosyatot” or “things singers,” and it is believed the ancestors transformed into the plants and life in the Sonoran Desert, including the Saguaro cacti.
If the development of a pipeline were to clear these forests, to the Comcáac this would amount to the excavation of their ancestors and kin.
Also of concern to many Comcáac and conservationists is how tankers could devastate large whales on their migratory path or across their breeding ground in the Gulf.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, vessel strikes—when a watercraft collides with marine life—are a leading cause of death for several large whale species.
However, researchers say official records likely underestimate the extent of the problem, as many strikes are unreported or unnoticed.
The Mexico-based environmental justice organization Conexiones Climáticas also warns that increased LNG shipping could intensify undersea noise pollution, disrupting whale communication, behavior, and reproduction.
The organization is part of the push behind the advocacy effort “ Whales or Gas ?”
that educates the public about the dangers U.S. gas companies pose to marine resources and Mexico’s whales.
A new generation of resistance
For many Comcáac youth, opposition to the LNG terminal extends beyond concerns about a single infrastructure project, though these young organizers are emerging as some of the most vocal critics of the proposed LNG corridor.
While MPL presents the Saguaro Energía project as economic development, Comcáac youth know the project threatens both ecological relationships and Indigenous futures.
In El Desemboque, a town in Comcáac territory just south of Puerto Libertad, Mayra “Mila” Estrella leads Tortugueros del Desemboque .
The Comcáac conservation group dedicates itself to protecting their relatives: the sea turtle.
Growing up along the Gulf, Estrella told Prism that she saw protecting the sea turtles as her calling.
“We as Indigenous peoples … we didn’t start the project, the work was already here,” she said.
Fishers’ livelihoods and conservation efforts are often framed as being in conflict, a schism that energy development intensifies by splitting local coalitions and pitting residents against each other.
Estrella, however, takes a different approach.
Tortugueros del Desemboque’s aim is to teach the community about the many turtle species in the Gulf of California.
Through this advocacy, the organization has built strong relationships with local fishers.
“Now fishermen help out,” said Estrella, noting that fishers now look out for turtles trapped in their nets and release them before it is too late.
Estrella’s nieces, Yarlin and Jazmín, are also members of Tortogueros del Desemboque, and they learned about the pipelines and the export terminal through social media.
The cousins told Prism that as Comcáac youth, they are vehemently against the project, but that elders have been reluctant to get involved, likely due to their fears of how the state can “ annihilate ” Indigenous people who fight to protect their land and water.
The discontent of the Comcáac youth led them to organize a protest against MPL in December on the opening day of a state-sponsored community kitchen for Indigenous children.
They seized the opportunity to voice their concerns about MPL to state officials attending the kitchen opening.
This time there were elders there to support the protest.
Estrella said the mobilization was rooted in a worldview that understands the Gulf as a relationship of responsibility and reciprocity.
“We are a part of nature.
We believe, create, and grow,” Estrella said in Spanish, describing the Comcáac relation to their more-than-human kin and their land.
As an example, Estrella said the Comcáac always ask the turtle for permission before protecting its eggs, knowledge she will pass down to the next generation.
If allowed to proceed, Estrella warned that MPL will redefine the Gulf of California and its future.
While the company continues to frame its pipeline and LNG terminal as necessary development for energy markets in the U.S. and Asia, local residents see the project as yet another effort to transform their land and sea into sacrifice zones for consumption.
The Comcáac and local residents assert a different future, one rooted in collective responsibility for their ancestors and more-than-human kin.
In defending their homes, they are defending ways of living beyond extraction.
According to Comcáac youth, the future of the Gulf is not yet settled.
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