As US citizens go to the polls, Latin American governments, businesses and citizens should examine how a re-elected President Trump or a newly elected Vice- President Biden may shape Western Hemisphere relations. The results of this election will certainly affect Latin America, as each candidate views the region through fundamentally different lenses. President Trump has … Continue Reading
On Monday, October 5, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented a package of 39 infrastructure projects that he intends to move forward in conjunction with the Mexican private sector. These projects would invest approximately 300 billion pesos in the communications, energy, tourism and water sectors. This announcement represents the reactivation of the previous plan … Continue Reading
With the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) recently going into effect on July 1, the President of Mexico made his first visit to the United States on Wednesday, July 8. This marks his first visit to the White House and his first foreign trip since taking office in December 2018; it comes ahead of the U.S. election … Continue Reading
On June 22, 2020, Mexico’s independent antitrust regulator (“COFECE”) filed a legal claim (controversia constitucional) with the nation’s Supreme Court arguing that the Ministry of Energy’s (“SENER”) Agreement setting forth the Policy of Reliability, Safety, Continuity, and Quality of the National Electric System (“Policy”), as published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on May … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, June 10, the Mexican court specialized in economic competition issued an order granting the definitive suspension of the Ministry of Energy’s (“SENER”) Agreement setting forth the Policy of Reliability, Safety, Continuity, and Quality of the National Electric System (“Policy”) and the independent system operator’s (“CENACE”) preoperative testing restrictions. This means that neither the … Continue Reading
Since our May 20 blog post, the Energy Regulatory Commission (“CRE”) added its name to the list of agencies disturbing Mexico’s legal and regulatory certainty. Additionally, the López Obrador administration has spent time publicly defending recent Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) and independent system operator (“CENACE”) regulatory changes affecting renewable energy projects. On the evening of … Continue Reading
On April 29, 2020, Mexico’s independent system operator (“CENACE”) notified generators of its decision to indefinitely suspend all legally mandated pre-operation tests for solar and wind projects in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such suspension purportedly seeks to safeguard the national grid against system interruptions clean intermittent energy projects could cause during the pandemic, and … Continue Reading
On March 30 Mexico declared a health emergency and issued a decree with strict measures to contain the fast-spreading of coronavirus “COVID-19,” on non-essential activities in the public and private sectors that would be in force until April 30. In order to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed with the increasing number of cases, … Continue Reading
Our Public Policy Team is operating at the epicenter of the evolving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, providing clients with timely updates, guidance and resources to weather the complex uncertainties, overcome challenges, mitigate risks, enhance resilience, maintain business continuity or normalize business operations as quickly as possible. We have just issued the following publications … Continue Reading
On May 30, United States President Donald Trump announced plans to impose new tariffs on all products imported from Mexico to the United States. Such an act would significantly impact binational trade and especially those sectors that have integrated supply chains, such as the automotive, agriculture, clothing, alcohol, electronic devices, and oil and gas industries.… Continue Reading
On Friday, May 17, 2019, the United States opted to reduce trade tensions with its immediate neighbors – Mexico and Canada – by eliminating Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum on imports from those countries, helping to pave the road for congressional approval of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Agreement. While global trade tensions remain, for … Continue Reading
On Thursday, September 6, 2018, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 4606 – Ensuring Small Scale LNG Certainty and Access Act (the “Bill”) by a vote of 260-146 largely along party lines with 37 Democrats joining 223 Republicans. The Bill amends Section 3(c) of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(c)) (the “NGA”) … Continue Reading
The government of Puerto Rico announced its plan to privatize the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) as part of a 18-month process that is expected to culminate with the sale of PREPA’s generation facilities and a private concession to operate and manage its transmission and distribution facilities. PREPA is the government-owned utility with sole … Continue Reading
Since the enactment of Law No. 57-07 on incentives for the development of renewable sources of energy on May 2007 (“Law No. 57-07”), the Dominican Republic has experienced a significant surge of investments in the renewable energy sector. For example, from 2011 to 2016, the country’s National Interconnected Electric System (“SENI”) added1,018 megawatts (“MW”) of … Continue Reading
2017 will be a year of truth for Argentina’s ambitious renewable energy program (“RenovAR”), which launched in 2015 and set a mandatory renewable energy target of 20 percent by the end of 2025, with incremental targets every two years. In addition to implementing positive reforms in the energy sector, the RenovAR program signifies an effort … Continue Reading
This month, the National Energy Commission of Chile (CNE) is scheduled to hold a new power auction, creating competition for the supply of 4.200 GWh of annual power – more than the originally planned 3.800 GWh. Chile’s most recent power auction made global headline news this past August by attracting 84 participants and resulting in … Continue Reading
