On December 13, 2013, Richard Fausset and Tracy Wilkinson write in the Los Angeles Times:
After contentious marathon sessions, Mexico’s Congress on Thursday gave final approval to a historic energy reform bill that ends the 75-year state monopoly of the country’s oil and gas industry and invites foreign investment.
In a dramatic shift, Mexico’s bloated state petroleum giant may soon have to compete with major U.S. and other multinational firms in the exploration of what are believed to be vast oil and gas reserves.
The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto said the change would boost lagging oil production and breathe life into a sluggish economy. But leftist lawmakers and many Mexicans vehemently oppose the move, which they see as surrendering precious natural resources to foreigners.
Unfortunately, those opposed are correct; the result will be to privatize energy development in Mexico and concentrate ownership of energy resources among a wealthy ownership class––all in the name of stimulating economic growth and job creation. But the Mexican people are the ones who will now be deprived of their natural energy resources as foreign investment and country’s wealthy private investors steal the peoples’ national wealth.
What should have occurred is the privatization of Mexico’s energy resources with EVERY individual Mexican citizen owning a share of a Resources Development Corporation (RDC) set up to develop the countries resources.
The RDC is a way for developing the country’s natural resources, under professional management and with access to interest-free central bank financing to purchase rights to natural resources and pursue their development, with the loans repaid by its land development and profits earned from the sale of energy products both within Mexico and globally. The RDC should be designed as a private-sector economic empowerment vehicle for all citizens of Mexico with the aim of making EVERY Mexican citizen a productive capital owner.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-chamber-oil-20131213,0,309253.story#axzz2nPQypq5i
