Nate Graham joined the Inter-American Dialogue in 2018 as the program assistant for Energy, Climate Change & Extractive Industries. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in political science and economics and a minor in environmental studies. While at Washington University, Nate spent a semester studying at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and interning at the US Foreign Commercial Service in Santiago, where he focused on the mining and automotive sectors. His articles have been published in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, and World Politics Review. He speaks English and Spanish and has intermediate proficiency in Portuguese.
Regulators and private companies will continue to play important roles in the development of Mexico’s energy resources despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s focus on strengthening state-owned companies and enhancing “energy sovereignty” by reducing dependence on energy imports from the United States. This was the key message from speakers at “La nueva política energética de México,” an Inter-American Dialogue event in Mexico City.
Argentina’s economic crisis and the fiscal belt-tightening it demands have led to gradual cuts to wholesale electricity and natural gas subsidies for consumers and a liberalization of energy prices over the course of Mauricio Macri’s administration. This has helped make Argentina more attractive as a destination for energy investment despite its economic tumult, said Argentine Secretary of Energy Gustavo Lopetegui at an event organized by the Inter-American Dialogue on March 14.
Even if Juan Guaido or another opposition figure finally takes the reins and starts fixing the oil sector in Venezuela, it will take years before oil exports can provide the economic boost needed to pull the nation out of the morass. Venezuela’s oil industry has been severely damaged, and there are questions about the long-term economic viability of its oil fields. Venezuelans will likely be disappointed with the pace of the economic turnaround under any new government—a risk that poses a real threat to political stability. Expectations ought to be tempered.
