Alonso Urrutia
Sent
The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, August 4, 2024, p. 4
Two Mouths, Tab., It’s a special day; historic!
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador summarized. The last of the great iconic projects of his administration is underway as of this Saturday: the Olmeca Refinery, in the community of Dos Bocas, in his state, in its water
as he defines it. A sort of flagship in his efforts to recover the energy sector that was so badly hit during the times of neoliberalism.
Invited to the ceremony to launch operations at this refinery, the virtual president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, praised the energy policy of this administration. They said that a refinery could not be built and today the best work of civil engineering, petrochemical oil began operations. With will and tenacity, without corruption and a lot of conviction, President López Obrador has taught us that everything is possible.
he claimed.
In front of hundreds of workers from the various companies that participated in the construction, the future president outlined her energy policy: My government will continue with the legacy of López Obrador. We will continue to strengthen oil policy in Mexico. That national pride that Lázaro Cárdenas left us and President López Obrador gave us back.
.
He promised to continue efforts to consolidate energy self-sufficiency through greater efficiency in the operation of refineries that will allow the elimination of the 2 percent of gasoline imports that the current government will leave behind, and to promote the petrochemical industry and the production of fertilizers.
He also announced that the recovery of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and Pemex will be consolidated, and announced the continuation of the policy of not raising, in real terms, the prices of gasoline or electricity.
In addition to strengthening these companies, we have a project to increase the production of renewable energy, always defending national sovereignty. We must all understand in the country that the weakness of our energy companies is not in anyone’s interest. Therefore, it is a mistake to consider that the generation of electric energy by CFE and the production of oil and refining by Pemex are classified as monopolies. Sovereign production is not a monopoly, so these companies cannot be treated like any other market firm.
he stressed.
In this context, he criticized the neoliberal energy policy that, he said, irrationally overexploited the Cantarell deposit, to the point of extracting 3.4 million barrels per day in that period.
At the same time, he said, the refineries were abandoned, which led the movement now headed by López Obrador from the Presidency to begin protests against the dismantling of Pemex to oppose the widespread privatization promoted by those governments.
The President acknowledged the workers who helped in the construction of the refinery. I want to thank everyone who participated in this work.
he noted, before recalling that this project was conceived from the time when he led the opposition and was outlined in 2018. A Pemex video captured some of the moments in which, in that year, López Obrador announced the project: Against all odds it will be built
.
