Ecobreves – MEXICO: Activist Pressure Discourages Chevron

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MEXICO CITY, May 12 2007 (IPS) - Civil society pressure, denunciations and legal measures are the reason the transnational oil giant Chevron backed off its plan to build a gasification plant near Mexico's Coronado Islands, say activists. Chevron has had government authorization since 2005 to build the plant, but desisted in February, after the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation decided to conduct and exhaustive investigation of the plan.

“If it weren't for civil society pressure, we would now be seeing progress on a project catastrophic for the environment” of these islands that hold great biodiversity, Pablo Uribe, of the Mexican environmental rights group CEMDA, told Tierramérica.

Several organizations, including CEMDA and Greenpeace, found irregularities in the government's authorization for the plant, and called for its cancellation, through legal complaints and public protests.