WASHINGTON – The top energy officials for the United States, Mexico and Canada on Monday agreed to the outlines of a “new roadmap” for the sector by signing a 15-point agreement including the promise to exchange information and recognizing the need to work together on energy security and environmental policies.Washington hosted the first meeting in seven years of top energy officials of the three nations, who signed a memorandum of understanding.
“One of the biggest results of the meeting is the 15 points. These 15 points constitute a roadmap for the ... region to integrate itself more from the energy point of view and, in particular, so that our people win in efficiency and energy security,” said Mexican Energy Secretary Pedro Joaquin Coldwell.
At a press conference at the Department of Energy, the three officials discussed Mexico’s energy reform designed to open the sector to private investment, a move that U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said was impressive.
On that subject, Coldwell expressed his desire for an increase in commercial exchanges among the energy companies of the three countries after the Mexican reform, a move that included constitutional changes in the country approved in 2013 despite the rejection by the leftist opposition.
It was in that context of change in Mexico’s energy sector that the three officials agreed on the need to exchange information to be able to work together.
Moniz said that figures compiled by the three governments are not always coherent or available, adding that the transparency policy will allow the governments to move forward in the meetings the officials will now hold more frequently, adding that 2015 will be a period of “serious efforts and action.”
At the press conference, reporters asked about the statements last week of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said that his country would commit to a program of reducing greenhouse gases in the oil and gas sectors only if the United States did likewise.
Moniz responded that “reducing carbon emissions is good for the economy and for the environment,” and he mentioned the plan unveiled last June by U.S. President Barack Obama to reduce carbon emissions from the country’s thermoelectric plants by 30 percent by 2030.
Meanwhile, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said that using coal to generate electricity is a “challenge” and an “opportunity” and the nations of North America must find a solution for it.
He said that Canada was ready to cooperate in that area, given that it has one of the world’s cleanest electricity-production systems, with 79 percent of its energy coming from sources that do not produce greenhouse gases.
After the meeting, Coldwell promised that at the next meeting the teams from the three countries will have “concrete results” regarding the roadmap they traced the outlines of on Monday.
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