On March 7th, the Inter-American Dialogue and CAF-Development Bank of Latin America organized a roundtable with a diverse group of experts to provide input for a forthcoming report on US investment in Latin American energy.
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In an interview with Benjamin Gedan, director of the Wilson Center’s Argentina Project, Lisa Viscidi discusses the current conditions and outlook for three key components of the Argentine energy sector.
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AMLO’s skepticism of private investment, the cancellation of generation and transmission auctions, and the return to state-led electricity development through bolstering of the CFE threaten to squander Mexico’s renewable potential and drag its clean development efforts backwards.
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Venezuela’s longest-ever blackout, which began on March 7 and lasted until at least March 12 in most of the country, aggravated an already dire humanitarian situation. Lisa Viscidi presented to a special meeting of the OAS Permanent Council about how grave government mismanagement of the power sector debilitated Venezuela’s grid, making electricity rationing a routine and power failures commonplace.
A lack of transmission-line maintenance may have been the immediate trigger for the power outage that left much of Venezuela in darkness on March 7, but it is a symptom of almost two decades of government mismanagement that has debilitated Venezuela’s power sector, draining its reserves of both human and financial capital and nudging it towards collapse.
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Lisa Viscidi, director of the Energy, Climate Change & Extractive Industries Program, appeared on CGTN to discuss the reasons for the unprecedented blackout that affected all of Argentina and Uruguay and parts of Paraguay on June 16, how it affects Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s re-election campaign, and whether it could happen again.
How are governments and companies in the region integrating digital technologies in the power sector?
Revitalizing Brazil’s energy sector will be key to Jair Bolsonaro’s success as president – but so far, he’s had mixed results when it comes to getting reforms through Congress. Unless Bolsonaro learns to work with legislators and ease turbulence within his government, Brazil’s missing energy reforms will continue to threaten its economy, and its politics.
Top content from the weekly Energy Advisor publications this year.
Over the past two years, the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sought to strip away central aspects of the 2013 energy reform that increased private investment in the power sector and return control of the sector to state utility CFE. These moves will reduce needed investment in the sector and lead to higher electricity costs for Mexican industry and manufacturing, affecting employment, trade, and Mexico’s ability to meet its clean energy targets, according to this new report by the Inter-American Dialogue.
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El Diálogo Interamericano preparó un informe titulado “El impacto de la política eléctrica estado-céntrica en México en el comercio, el clima y la economía”, el cual analiza los principales cambios ocurridos en la política energética de México y sus impactos en la inversión y en el medio ambiente. El informe fue presentado en un webinar el 18 de noviembre organizado por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y el Real Instituto Elcano.
Energy and climate change are important aspects of the US-Brazil relationship and will only become more prominent under the Biden administration. Brazil and the US are important diplomatic and trade partners in the hemisphere, and both countries have the potential to make major contributions to combating climate change and developing more sustainable and reliable energy systems. In collaboration with FGV Energia, on February 26, the Inter-American Dialogue held a private virtual roundtable on US-Brazil energy and climate cooperation.
The world is in a transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 that will change the way we use and produce energy and shape the sustainability of our planet. This paper, published by UC San Diego, addresses how Mexico and the United States can use their energy resources to deliver jobs, economic prosperity, and social justice at this transformational juncture in history, examining three areas fundamental to the US-Mexico energy relationship: sustainability; hydrocarbons; and gas, power, and renewables.
The energy markets of the United States and Mexico are deeply integrated, to the benefit of both countries and their economies. The new US administration has a clear interest in preserving and expanding this fruitful relationship while advancing its ambitious clean energy and climate goals, both at home and abroad. On March 11, the Inter-American Dialogue held a private roundtable on US-Mexico energy cooperation.
A Latin America Energy Advisor Q&A featuring experts’ viewpoints on Mexican President López Obrador’s power sector plan.
