Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) — Mexico, one of three Latin American nations that uses nuclear power, is abandoning plans to build as many as 10 new reactors and will focus on natural gas-fired electricity plants after boosting discoveries of the fuel.
The country, which found evidence of trillions of cubic feet of gas in the past year, is “changing all its decisions, amid the very abundant existence of natural-gas deposits,” Energy Minister Jordy Herrera said yesterday in an interview. Mexico will seek private investment of about $10 billion during five years to expand its natural gas pipeline network, he said.
Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, is boosting estimated gas reserves after Petroleos Mexicanos discovered new deposits in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and shale gas in the border state of Coahuila. The country was considering nuclear power as part of plans to boost capacity by almost three-quarters to 86 gigawatts within 15 years, from about 50 gigawatts, and now prefers gas for cost reasons, he said.
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“The country has very high potential to develop renewable energy,” Herrera said. “But the renewable energy world is hurt by the cheap gas prices. And the government has to consider how much it can spend to promote alternative energy sources.”
Do tell.
Maley's Energy Blog 
Steve-
DefendUSA here from RedState…just read an article in Forbes about some company…Chesapeake Energy…and the owner buying up land and using “landmen” to find potential places to drill for oil and paying people to lease the land and also give them a piece of the profit. (http://www.chk.com/Operations/Pages/Default.aspx) Perhaps you are familiar? Are they allowed to drill?
Anyway, it reminded me to ask you a question about fracking. I read a report sometime back about this causing floods and earthquakes. My brain says no way…just like all humans are not the sole cause of global warming or the weather trends in summer or winter. Any thoughts?
Re: Chesapeake. Yes, that’s basically the way it works, only landowners get a share of revenue, not profits. That’s a better deal: landowner gets paid regardless of profit.
Re: fracking causing flooding. No way. Some folks think it might have caused groundwater contamination in certain places. Not proven as far as I know.
Re: fracking causing earthquakes. No way, not the way it is reported in the press. There are two conventional water injection wells in Arkansas that are suspected of causing earthquakes because their injection of various kinds of waste water (including perhaps some frac water) may have entered a regional fault zone, leading to some instability. Maybe. I’ve seen no proof, but I see how it might happen. But even if true, in no way does that that mean that “fracking causes earthquakes”.
It just reminds me of others doing all they can to discourage any kind of drilling…And in today’s local, I read this:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/11/06/1622174/shale-gas-means-money-plenty-of.html
I want to believe it is more bs to discourage self sufficiency in energy, which could give the gpv’t more power to “study” efficacy and that contamination of water supplies, again is just bunk. I’ll do some more reading…Appreciate your insights and columns at RS. We’ve got several clients who diving into this type of well drilling so when I see this, i pay attention!