Speaking to workers at the newly-reopened “José López Portillo” state-operated coal plant in Nava, Coahuila on Oct. 24, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warned foreign energy interests—oil, gas, and “renewable”— and their U.S. Congressional lobbyists that Mexico is “not going to retreat one step” from rebuilding the state oil and electricity companies driven into the ground by decades of neoliberal looting.
He was responding to a letter sent to President Donald Trump on Oct. 22 by a bipartisan group of 6 U.S. Senators and 37 Representatives, requesting that the Trump administration take action to stop the Mexican government from policies which “threaten U.S. energy companies’ investment and market access” in Mexico. The letter suggests Mexico could be sanctioned for “violat[ing] and contradict[ing] the spirit, if not the letter, of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).”
They object to the steps being taken to reverse the Mexican 2014 Energy Reform under which oil-rich Mexico was turned into a net importer of gasoline and other refined products. The U.S. legislators admit that Mexico is now “the largest export market for U.S. petroleum products and a growing market for natural gas exports” as a result of that reform.
López Obrador first reminded the legislators that Mexico’s energy policies are not included in the USMCA, because he had refused to allow that. He then detailed how previous governments had drastically lowered the electricity generated by Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) plants, or closed them outright—such as the coal plant complex where he was speaking—in order to create favorable conditions for the private interests moving in to charge ever-increasing rates.
