translated from Spanish: Clean Energy, a sofisma that neoliberal policy used to benefit individuals: AMLO

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended his government’s energy policy this Saturday, failing that private businesses were protected in previous administrations, resulting in underutilization of dams or power-generating plants.
On his visit to Coahuila, the representative said that the support given to the two state-productive enterprises (CFE and Pemex) does not violate any agreement and is made within the margins of the law.
Read: Pemex: between the pandemic crisis and the urgency of rethinking the energy strategy 
It complained that currently 50% of the energy consumed by the country was purchased at high prices from private companies and that they deliberately closed the operation of the CFE and Pemex resulting in underutilization of their plants.
He assured that private plants were protected and criticized the abuses committed by private companies during the neoliberal period.
He noted that with neoliberal politics they began to deceive, to say that if the electricity industry was not privatized we would run out of light, that it did not have the capacity of the CFE to produce the electricity demanded by Mexico’s development. This was the first sofisma (false argument with real appearance) that was used, he said.
“They used another sofisma, the clean energy thing, that these plants of the Federal Electricity Commission are already old and pollute, and that therefore it was better the production of gas energy, thermoelectrics, wind plants or solar energy, energies that, in fact, do not pollute, but are subsidized; produce or fail to produce, the Federal Commission – on a public budget, which is money from all over the town – has to buy them electricity,” he said.
Read: Sener publishes agreement that curbs investment in clean energy; EU and Canada warn of negative impact
“They deliberately shut down the plants and here is the example, eight large coal-fired power generators and barely allow one, seven standing, to work because they do not authorize it, according to the new regulations that were established in the neoliberal period, to produce neither this plant nor the other plants of the Federal Electricity Commission at its full capacity.”
It noted that the same is the case with dams, with hydroelectric plants that are underutilized, have the capacity to produce, but are not authorized to dispatch, to increase the electricity produced by the CFE, because particular plants are protected.
He said that what was needed was to buy more coal and thus help producers, to produce, for example, the Coal II and José López Portillo plants, which generate approximately 2.6 megawatts of energy and where it is envisaged to build a new coal plant with an investment of one billion dollars.
“Repsol doesn’t pay me, I get paid by Mexicans to serve them, and that’s why I have to defend the public interest, not the interest of individuals,” he said.
He claimed that he will rescue Pemex and the CFE, whether with constitutional reform.
The representative also responded to the signals of U.S. congressmen who accuse the Mexican government of obstruction in the energy sector.
He said Mexico has not signed any energy agreements with the U.S. government or Canada.
“About two days ago a document signed by U.S. lawmakers appeared complaining about the energy policy we are implementing in our country, I want to treat the issue with great respect for them, just clarifying that in this matter and in others, but fundamentally in terms of our country’s energy policy, we have not signed any agreement with the Government of the United States or Canada,” he said.
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Original source in Spanish