John Kerry announced a special group that will take a closer look at AMLO's Energy Reform

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had a high-level meeting with John Kerry, the US Special Envoy for Climate, and Ken Salazar, the US Ambassador to Mexico around the Electricity Reform he has promoted.

In his meeting with the media, on the way out of the National Palace, Special Envoy John Kerry assured that during the meeting with the President of Mexico, ideas were presented for the reform to move forward effectively for both nations.

In this regard, he assured that the United States will create a special team to analyze the questioned electricity reform of the Mexican government, although he did not specify its objectives.

The leftist López Obrador has argued that his reform respects what is agreed in the US treaty T-MEC and that it favors clean energy, in addition to combating “dirty businesses”, but also that, in its management, the way trade agreements are made “has changed”.

But in the United States and Canada, the local electricity sector initiative has caused concern as, they believe, could affect investments from both countries, favor the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and actually promote dirty energy.

After Thursday's meeting, the Mexican president called the dialogue, which was attended by representatives of American companies and which lasted 7 hours, as “friendly”.

“We met with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, Ambassador Ken Salazar, and a group of American businessmen. I think it was a friendly, necessary and beneficial meeting,” the Mexican president wrote on Twitter, without giving any further details.

For her part, the head of the Energy Secretariat, Rocío Nahle, assured upon her departure from the National Palace that it was a good meeting; however, she indicated that this Friday President López Obrador would give more details.

For his part, when questioned whether the meeting was positive, the director general of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Octavio Romero Oropeza, indicated with a nod that it was.

Roberto Velasco, head of the North American Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), said that at the meeting, where the electricity reform promoted by the federal president was discussed, agreements were reached with US officials and businessmen.

“Very good agreements and very good cheer with the businessmen, everyone left very happy,” he said.

It should be noted that the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López Hernández; the adviser to the United States Special Presidential Envoy to Mexico, Reed Schuler, and the official of the economic section, Andrew Gene Winkelman, also participated in the meeting.

In his morning conference this Thursday, López Obrador said that at the meeting he would reiterate that his initiative reserves at least 54% of electricity production to CFE, against 38% today.

Last week, Oenegés and representatives of US companies expressed their concerns about Mexico's current energy policies in a virtual meeting with the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Katherine Tai.

They mentioned “chronic delays in permits” in the renewable energy sector, which is “weakening investor confidence in Mexico, at the expense of the environment,” the US government reported in a statement.

*With information from AFP

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