Mexico’s likely next president aims to make the country’s electrical grid cleaner — while icing out U.S. investment.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, the front-runner in the country’s June 2 presidential election, is an environmental scientist who has pledged to invest billions of dollars in renewable energy. But she has also laid out a plan to cap private sector investment in the electricity market.
The combination could enshrine the dominance of the Mexican government in the country’s energy sector, closing off avenues for U.S. companies to invest in Mexico’s clean energy transition. That could hinder Sheinbaum’s ambitious plans to boost solar and wind projects, experts say, and further embed planet-warming fossil fuels in Mexico’s economy.
“I don’t think that the [renewable energy] project is actually going to be something achievable, not in the short, medium or long term, with state-owned companies,” said Edmundo Sandoval, associate director of global risk analysis at Control Risks, an international risk consultancy.
