A new president takes office in Mexico on December 1. Andrés Manuel López Obrador easily won Mexico’s presidential election on July 1 as a populist representing a party he founded four years ago. His nation’s energy future is among the critical issues he will face.

On this edition of the Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless interviews Amb. Carlos Pascual, a senior vice president at IHS Markit, where he concentrates on worldwide energy issues and international affairs. Carlos served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2009 to 2011 and to Ukraine from 2000 to 2003. At the U.S. State Department, he established and directed the agency’s Energy Resources Bureau as a special envoy and coordinator for international affairs from 2011 to 2014. He is also a non-resident fellow at CGEP.

Bill caught up with Carlos recently during a trip Carlos made to Washington, D.C., from his home base in Mexico City. They discussed, among other topics:

1. This significant change in Mexico’s leadership and its serious implications for the nation’s energy future, especially its proud but troubled history as an oil producer;
2. The election campaign of President-elect López Obrador and his political party, the National Regeneration Movement, or MORENA, as its known, and particularly his views on energy reforms implemented under his predecessor, President Enrique Peña Nieto;
3. Whether López Obrador will continue to make Mexico’s oil and natural gas activities open to foreign participation and what steps the new leader thinks are necessary to revive Mexico’s national oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex; and,
4. Energy trade between the U.S. and Mexico and what may lie in store.

Back on November 4, a raft of U.S. sanctions on Iran snapped back into force, six months after the Trump Administration withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. How Iran, U.S. allies, and U.S. competitors react to the stresses brought about by Trump’s decision will have far-reaching impacts for geopolitics, global energy markets and security, and financial markets.

On the latest episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast, host Jason Bordoff discusses the guideposts to watch out for in this space over the next year with Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at CGEP and the former Principal Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy at the Department of State. In his prior role Richard was instrumental in designing the sanctions regime against Iran as well as the deal that lifted them, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Jason and Richard recently sat down in New York to discuss the current state of sanctions policy against Iran, the practical aspects of enforcement given today's landscape, the role that India and China will play in determining the effectiveness of sanctions implementation, and many other issues. 

Energy and the environment may not have been leading national issues in the U.S. mid-terms elections, but the results will nevertheless influence public policy in Washington, D.C. and states across the nation. 

On this edition of the Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless sits down with Kevin Book, a managing director of the consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners, to talk about the election results, including what they mean for energy and environmental policies and regulations during the next two years of the Trump administration.

As well as heading the research team at ClearView, Kevin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Petroleum Council, as well as a non-resident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Prior to co-founding ClearView, Kevin worked as a senior energy analyst for a national investment bank.

In addition to discussing the federal policy landscape looking out to 2020, when Bill and Kevin got together in Washington, D.C. they also looked at key referenda at the state level, including measures calling for a carbon fee in Washington state, higher renewable energy standards in Arizona and Nevada, and restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling in Colorado.

From economic sanctions, to geopolitical concerns over cross-border infrastructure projects, to an evolving global market for natural gas, a set of shifting dynamics are having a substantial impact on Russia's energy sector. 

To discuss these issues and more, host Jason Bordoff recently sat down with Dr. Tatiana Mitrova, Director of the SKOLKOVO Energy Centre in Moscow and a Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, on the latest episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange. Tatiana has over twenty years of experience in dealing with Russian and global energy markets, including production, transportation, demand, policy, pricing and market restructuring.

During their conversation, Tatiana and Jason discussed Russia's oil and gas sector, including Russia’s export policies and its relationship with other producer countries. Tatiana also discussed the economic and geopolitical consequences of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. Other topics in their conversation included Gazprom's response to the changing global gas market, Russian gas market liberalization efforts, and the future of Russia's relationship with Saudi Arabia.