Mexico key opposition party criticizes oil plan

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A key Mexican opposition party lawmaker has recommended rejecting part of President Felipe Calderon’s energy reform proposal that would allow private companies to own refineries and pipelines.

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has said it likes the general look of Calderon’s plan to boost the sagging energy sector and state oil monopoly Pemex.


But in comments published on Monday, Sen. Francisco Labastida, the PRI’s point man for energy policy, said part of Calderon’s plan that would allow private companies to own refineries would take jobs from the national oil workers union. The powerful Pemex union is an ally of the PRI.

“It is the factor that most polarizes society and moreover would take a source of work away from (the union),” Labastida, who heads the Senate energy committee, said in a report analyzing Calderon’s bill, Reforma newspaper reported.

Reuters