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The future of Mexico is entwined with energy reforms
http://www.mexidata.info/id130.html
Monday, February 9, 2004
By Barnard R. Thompson
One would hope its yet premature, but Vicente Fox might mull over what John Ardagh wrote about fellow Irishman and onetime prime minister Garrett
Fitzgerald: ?Perhaps history?s verdict on him will be that he pointed the Irish down the path, but failed to take them very far along it.?
All the same, the jury is still out as to how Fox will be remembered ? and this in spite of an amelioration of democracy in Mexico leading up to his
winning the presidency.
Yet if substantive, needed and promised reforms continue to be blocked by an opposition controlled congress, history may record 2000 as a simple blip,
an asterisk noting that Fox, his ?Amigos de Fox? and the National Action Party brought a 71 year autocratic reign by the Institutional Revolutionary
Party to an end (or maybe just an interlude), and little more.
Now, into the fourth year of Fox?s six-year presidency ? and in what could be his closing chance to get meaningful legislation through congress, the
partisan strife is yet again underway.
Energy proposals are once more at the top of the list of reform packages sent to congress, which complicates matters even further. The latter because
the energy sector as a whole, plus each of its key facets, all carry added baggage.
To jump-start support for an affirmative vote on energy issues in the forthcoming session of congress, administration officials have been meeting with
legislative and entrepreneurial leaders since the beginning of the year.
According to sources interviewed by the financial daily El Economista, in its February 4 edition, during one such meeting with representatives of the
private sector energy secretary Felipe Calder?n Hinojosa called for a diversification of fuels in order to reduce the industrial use of liquefied
natural gas (LNG). Energy officials said that Pemex, Mexico?s oil and gas monopoly, does not have enough LNG to keep the ?national electric system?
operating, or to meet industrial demands that are expected to increase by 27 percent this year.
The entrepreneurs and industrialists reacted negatively to the proposal, pointing out that Mexico?s industrial base would have to go through a
complete conversion in order to use alternative fuels. Those interviewed also claimed that the government?s proposals are little more than short-term
efforts to sidestep the legislative process in order to alter rules and regulations.
Another plan that is moving forward is to involve Mexico?s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) in the LNG market, in direct competition with Pemex.
The proposal is for the CFE to import LNG from the U.S., Australia, Bolivia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and Russia to meet its demand, and to sell the
surplus to business and industrial users in western Mexico.
To bring this LNG into the country, the CFE is planning a storage terminal and regasification plant on Mexico?s west coast, near Manzanillo, Colima,
or L?zaro C?rdenas, Michoac?n. Tender bid requisites for the estimated US$350 million facility should be advertised within the next two to three
months.
At the same time, LNG plant and receiving terminal plans for several facilities on the northern Pacific coast of Baja California are running into
obstacles. Of an originally announced five projects, at a combined investment value of nearly US$3 billion, the number has dwindled to three ? and
all three are facing problems that range from public opposition to environmental permitting questions to newly aroused safety concerns due to a deadly
January 20 explosion at an Algerian LNG complex.
While the three Baja California receiving terminals for imported LNG and the regasification plants are to supply growing local needs, a major goal
(maybe the real goal) is to also export gas to Southern California.
Marathon Oil Company has a site south of Playas de Tijuana, however many area residents are opposed to such a complex in their backyard. And while
Marathon has a go-ahead permit from Mexico?s federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it still does not have all of the environmental permits or its
requisite land use authorizations.
Chevron-Texaco is advancing through the application process for an offshore facility near the Coronado Islands, west of Tijuana. However it too will
need environmental and land use permits, especially as it will have to interconnect with a planned (and yet to be authorized) transmission pipeline
that is to run from north of Ensenada to east of Tijuana.
A Shell-Sempra Energy terminal is planned for a more isolated location north of Ensenada and south of the Bajamar resort development. But here again
some permits are pending for the estimated US$600 million joint venture.
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JESSE
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Fox sucks, even hes wife is making a fool of him, definately the weakest president in 50 yrs, i can't believe i voted for him.
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Anonymous
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Mexico's Fox approval drops on economy, leadership
| Quote: | Originally posted by JESSE
Fox sucks, even hes wife is making a fool of him, definately the weakest president in 50 yrs, i can't believe i voted for him.
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20040301-0908-mexi...
REUTERS
March 1, 2004
MEXICO CITY ? Mexican President Vicente Fox's popularity rating has dropped in recent months due to weak economic growth and a perception that he
lacks leadership, opinion polls published Monday showed. Fifty-five percent of those interviewed in surveys in the Reforma daily said they approved of
the way Fox was running the country, two percentage points lower than in a similar Reforma poll last September.
Another survey in the El Universal paper also gave Fox a 55 percent approval rating, three percentage points lower than its previous poll last
November.
Fox has failed to bring about the stellar economic growth he promised when he ousted the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in elections in
2000.
The economy grew a weak 1.3 percent last year, although growth is forecast to recover to beyond 3 percent in 2004.
Congress blocked attempts by Fox to pass energy and fiscal reforms, casting doubts on the former Coca-Cola executive's leadership skills.
Nevertheless, Fox's popularity is still relatively high by Latin American standards, and Mexico has avoided some of the economic and political
upheavals that have hit other countries in the region like Argentina and Venezuela...
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