La energía en la Alianza para la Seguridad y Prosperidad en América del Norte

Abstract

This article aims to analyze energy in the context of the proposed Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America given the new priorities of U.S. foreign policy and the pre-eminence of security as the axis of U.S.-Mexico relations. The authors question some of the partnership's main objectives taking into consideration the maturity of the geological basins (the United States and Canada) and the lack of energy-saving policies in the region. The article concludes that with the partnership, the United States is seeking to ensure a reliable energy supply in the region, guarantee the continuity of neo-liberal policies in the sector and "open up" Mexico's energy sector. It also questions the prevailing vision of integration based on a model of symmetric interdependence, emphasizing in contrast the conditions of profound asymmetry in which Mexico is being integrated, with all the distortions that this would create in the Mexican energy sector and that would tend to sharpen. The article also discusses the fossil-fuel energy paradigm and the difficulties of changing it to renewable fuels and new technologies because of the economic interests involved, a situation that also characterizes the trilateral proposal.