Tag Archives: AMLO

Mexico goes all-in on refining

February 21, 2022Energy, Politics4T, AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Deer Park refinery, diesel, Dos Bocas refinery, gasoline, Mexican energy policy, Pemex, petroleum, refiningTom

Mexico’s state-owned national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announced earlier this year that it plans to significantly reduce crude petroleum exports in 2022 and phase out crude exports altogether by the end of 2023. The news was reported widely in domestic and international media. We have criticized President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in this space, but in fairness we must acknowledge that he is clearly not afraid to launch bold and decisive new public policy initiatives, for better or worse. We continue to question, however, whether many of them are a good idea. Continue reading Mexico goes all-in on refining →

Mexico facing three more years of torpor under AMLO

December 21, 2021Economy, Energy, PoliticsAMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Claudia Sheinbaum, Dos Bocas refinery, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican economy, Mexican election 2024, Mexican politics, Ricardo MonrealTom

As 2021 draws to a close and the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) reaches its halfway point, the president has achieved at least one of his principal objectives: He is the only topic in Mexico. In Trumpian fashion, AMLO has extinguished any hope that anything constructive will be accomplished during his reign, and all subjects now revolve around him. ‘AMLO is a catastrophe, we are doomed!’ ‘AMLO is a saint, we are delivered!’ And on a more mundane level, will AMLO let anyone do business in this country, other than his protected devotees (who are making bank while the going is good)? He has become a political Santa Claus, who knows who’s been naughty (the private sector) and who’s been nice (the military and anyone professing blind fealty to him), and he will continue to stuff the stockings of the nice with gifties like newly-created public enterprises and juicy no-tender contracts, while the coal will keep coming for the naughty. Continue reading Mexico facing three more years of torpor under AMLO →

COP26 and the calvary of Marcelo Ebrard

October 27, 2021Energy, PoliticsAMLO, COP26, Lopez Obrador, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican politics, Mexico energy policy, Renewable energyTom

Back in 2003 or so, we attended a meeting of local business executives here in Mexico City and listened while they ranted and wrung their hands over the prospect of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) someday becoming president. In our turn to speak we downplayed the alarm level, suggesting that if AMLO were ever to reach the presidency he would turn out to be more pragmatic in pursuing his agenda at the national level. Our opinion was rejected, to say the least, by the meeting attendees. Well, fast forward 18 years or so, and it turns out we were so wrong about AMLO we really ought to be fined and imprisoned for how wrong we were. Since the day he was elected, AMLO burst forth unleashed with the ether bottle in one hand and a scepter in the other, waging unconditional campaigns against the private sector, foreign imperialists, NGOs, science, academia, wind farms, women and a long list of other personal bogeythings. The range of active fronts in his war on sense is vast, and today we would like to offer some comments on the upcoming COP26 climate change conference and how it provides an example of Mexico’s free fall in the opposite direction of sound public policy. Continue reading COP26 and the calvary of Marcelo Ebrard →