Energy Reform: A Great Step Forward

ENERGY REFORM: A GREAT STEP FORWARD FOR THE FUTURE OF MEXICO

13 August, 2014

The Ambassador of Mexico to New Zealand, Her Excellency Leonora Rueda, is announcing with great satisfaction one of the most important news items in decades for her country: the long-awaited reform of the energy sector.

Yesterday, while enacting the approval of the secondary legislation of energy reform, the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto stated that “thanks to unity of purpose, in months we have overcome decades of immobility; the barriers that prevented Mexico from growing in an accelerated and sustained manner have been knocked down”, according to the press release from the President´s office.

During the event, President Peña Nieto declared that once the legislative process was completed, “we reaffirmed that the energy reform preserves and assures the nation’s ownership of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the Comisión Federal de Electricidad —Federal Electricity Commission (CFE)—, hydrocarbons in subsoil and oil revenue.

He noted that “with this reform we can extract deep-water oil and more effectively use our great shale deposit to obtain gas that allows us to generate electricity at a lower cost. The country will reduce its dependency on foreign supplies and will guarantee its energy security”.

After acknowledging federal lawmakers for “their splendid job in achieving and making this important reform a reality,” President Peña Nieto said that these changes will translate into concrete benefits for families, both in the cities and in the countryside, as well as for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises.

President Enrique Peña Nieto reiterated that “this energy reform is also a green reform because it promotes the use of cleaner fuels such as gas, which is 70 per cent less of a pollutant than oil. It will also allow the production of energy based on renewable sources like solar and wind power, and geothermal energy.”

In addition, he emphasized that “this is the moment to put the energy reform into action so the majority of Mexico can receive the benefits this landmark change brings”. Consequently, he announced ten concrete actions, in the short and medium term, to achieve this goal.

For his part, the Secretary of Energy, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, stated that “with the energy reform, the President and Congress have widened the path for the future.” He also claimed that with the enactment of the secondary legislation of energy reform, “this day is a watershed, a before and an after in the energy paradigm experienced for the past decades.

"A change in the way in which we relate our national identity to energy, which will now correspond to the realities of the twenty-first century, and the environment in which the Mexicans of this generation develop," he said.

Secretary Coldwell said both the CFE and PEMEX are strengthened, as they no longer function as decentralized public bodies and now become 100 percent State-owned productive enterprises, with the objective of becoming strong, sound, and competitive public companies.

ENDS

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