Jose Maria Valenzuela in Phenomenal World:
At Claudia Sheinbaum’s first State of Affairs speech, the President announced the passage of fourteen new energy sector laws after only eleven months in office. Sheinbaum’s series of reforms mark a new era for state-coordination in the energy sector, a vision that has triggered a wave of criticisms from the business community and beyond.
Take, for example, the opinion of Mexican leading climate expert Dr. Adrián Fernandez, who, at the time of Sheinbaum’s election, told the Washington Post that Sheinbaum’s climate views “are incompatible with her promises to continue many of López Obrador’s energy policies […] like strengthening the national oil and electricity companies.” The comment suggests that ambitious decarbonization efforts are incompatible with an energy sector characterized by dominant state-owned enterprises. It is the latter with which many business leaders are primarily concerned.
Critics of the active state in Mexico allege that market intervention generates underinvestment. Furthermore, they claim that Mexican state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are not adequate to competently navigate new waves of technology. And, in the wider North American context, SOEs are thought to put Mexico’s industry in jeopardy by triggering mechanisms of investment protection.
The suspicion of SOEs—whether in general, or specific to the green transition—is unfounded. Most private investment in renewable energy across the globe has been facilitated by long-term supply contracts from SOEs or central government agencies. Out of all solar and wind energy projects, two-thirds are held by Chinese SOEs (incidentally, China has recently confirmed an impressive target of 3,500 Gigawatts of solar and wind by 2035). And new forms of intervention in the energy sector are welcome by investors searching for low-risk investments with long-term return profiles.
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