Mexican president nods to environment but favors state energy firms

On the campaign trail two years ago, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to meet Mexico’s commitments on combating global warming and discussed moving the oil-producing nation away from fossil fuels with leading environmentalists, like former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

“As a matter of conviction, we’ve decided to take care of the environment like no previous government has done,” the leftist nationalist said in a major speech this week.

For instance, he has pledged a new $8 billion oil refinery in his home state of Tabasco, plus upgrades to six existing Pemex facilities. And he has sought to temporarily prevent dozens of privately-owned wind and solar plants from connecting to the national grid, saying power from them was too intermittent.