FILE - Pemex oil workers set the drill on the Centenario deep-water drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico, Nov. 22, 2013. The 1938 nationalization of Mexico’s oil sector from U.S. and British companies is a point of pride for millions of Mexicans.FILE - A mural of Mexico’s former President Lazaro Cardenas covers a wall alongside the words in Spanish “Pemex is not for sale,” right, from the PRD political party in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 16, 2013.
Gálvez did say she wants Mexico to produce half its energy from renewable sources within six years and that Mexico once again become known for cheap energy “thanks to private sector participation.” “It would be costly for her to move away from that official line,” said Oscar Ocampo, energy and environment coordinator for IMCO.
Julia González Romero, a lawyer specializing in energy sector regulations with the law firm González Calvillo, recalled that she was taught in elementary school about the oil expropriation and said it’s understandable that the debate over public versus private in the energy sector is heated.