AMLO’s Energy Reforms Would Set Mexico Back 50 Years

AMLO’s Energy Reforms Would Set Mexico Back 50 Years
A Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, electric meter is attached to a pole in San Jeronimo Xayacatlan, Mexico, June 24, 2020 (AP file photo by Fernando Llano).

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s proposed energy reform bill is still awaiting legislative action since being sent to Congress last October. But it is already generating sparks in Mexico—and Washington.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm traveled to Mexico City on Jan. 20 to meet with AMLO, as Lopez Obrador is known, and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. The main issue on the agenda: How to prevent Mexico from approving the bill, which Washington argues would violate several clauses of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada, or USMCA, free trade agreement. 

This isn’t the first time U.S. government officials have signaled their reservations about the reform, which is one of AMLO’s top legislative priorities. Last November, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar expressed his concerns, and two days before Granholm’s visit to Mexico, four Democratic senators sent a letter to the Biden administration urging him to use “all diplomatic” channels to prevent the bill from passing.   

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