Sempra
2015 Methane Catastrophe
One of Sempra Energy's subsidiaries, Southern California Gas, was responsible for the largest methane leak in U.S. history in 2015, which displaced 8,000 people from their homes. The executive director responsible faced no consequences and was instead transferred to the board of Mexican subsidiary, Sempra Mexico.[1]
Yaqui River Invasion
Sempra Energy is building a fossil gas pipeline through the Yaqui Nation's territory, threatening the Yaqui River's health and at-risk endemic species nearby.
Despite a federal injunction from the Mexican government ordering Sempra to halt the project, the company continued with its illegal construction. Yaqui Water Defenders were thus forced to take law enforcement into their own hands and disabled the pipeline which was illegally trespassing across their national territory in 2018. As a result, Arizona’s gas exports to Mexico plunged by 37%.
In retaliation, at least three Yaqui Water Defenders have been murdered or disappeared since 2021[2]: Luis Urbano Dominguez Mendoza, Agustin Valdez & Tomas Rojo Valencia.
Facing the assassination of resistance leaders and endemic health problems and cultural assault from decades of land and water theft, Yaqui leaders have not minced words in charging the culprits with genocide:
“It is genocide because they’re poisoning the river with fertilizer and pesticides from big agribusiness, a lot of them American owned, and they’re stealing the water for use in Hermosillo and other places. That’s money and food taken away from the Yaqui. The Rio Yaqui is just the life of everybody. They use it daily. They need that water and they need it for ceremony.” - Rosemary Tona-Aguirre
"the Yaqui River is a structural part of our life and with this theft of our water, they are condemning us to death as a people." - Mario Luna