As much as the government of President López Obrador insists on minimizing in Mexico the concerns of the United States government in relation to the constitutional reform in electrical matters presented to the Chamber of Deputies several months ago, it is evident that both the government of the president Biden, as well as Democratic and Republican legislators, are centrally concerned about the possibility that the initiative in question will be approved in the terms in which it was proposed.
This was made clear by the recent visit of the Secretary of Energy of the United States, Jennifer M. Granholm, who, however, was cordial and in good spirits in the different images that were disseminated regarding the various meetings she held in our country. , including, of course, the one he held with President López Obrador and Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle, at the end of his visit to Mexico he issued a statement clearly stating that in each of his meetings “he expressly communicated the real concerns of the Biden-Harris Administration for the potential negative impact of Mexico’s energy reform proposals on US private investment in Mexico.
But not only did she limit herself to reporting the comments she expressly made to question the reform, but also, in that same statement, the US official slipped a statement that clearly goes against the thinking of the 4T in relation to renewable energies, by point out that “Mexico is blessed with an abundance of potential renewable energy, which, if fully realized, could generate at least 10 times the energy needed by its own country, create millions of well-paying jobs, and develop an extraordinary export industry poised to a world in need of clean energy solutions”.
I say that it goes against the thinking of the 4T on renewable energies, since its spokespersons both in the field of the Executive Power and in the Congress of the Union have dedicated themselves to questioning the role of renewable energies in the energy matrix of Mexico, among other reasons, because of their “intermittency”, in addition to being associated, maliciously, with supposedly higher costs than those reported by the industry. That the Secretary of Energy of our neighbor to the north comes and points out in a statement to the Mexican government the benefits of renewable energy is clearly a difficult blow to digest for an administration determined to return Mexico to the energy model of the 1970s. Last century.
In this critical context, the response that the secretaries of Commerce and Energy, together with the US Trade Representative (USTR), sent to a Republican legislator is also inserted, where in addition to making it clear that “we share your concerns regarding the constitutional reforms proposed by Mexico and the recent actions that affect US companies and investors in the energy sector”, they affirmed that they remain committed to ensuring fair treatment for US exporters and investors.
So it is evident that there is indeed a manifest concern in the US government about the energy reform, that although the 4T tries to pretend that it is not aware of it, sooner or later it will grow in intensity and cause commercial tensions that will end up affecting the closing of the six-year term of President López Obrador. These real clouds in the commercial relationship will end up forcing the 4T to have to take into account the warnings that come from abroad to adjust to a great extent, a reform that is not only poorly designed and supported, but also poorly processed, due to the pretense of imposing it. without accepting any argument from the opposition.
*The author is an economist.
@GerardoFloresR
telecommunications expert
Economic Momentum
