One of Mexico’s largest power plants, operated by state-owned electricity company Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, almost exclusively burned fuel oil from 2016-2019 in violation of maximum sulfur limits set by law. Emissions from the Tula thermoelectric plant, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Mexico City, showed it was one of North America’s most polluting power plants. Molina said it was “very worrying” that the plant’s emissions can reach the sprawling capital of more than 20 million inhabitants. He criticized the broader energy agenda of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office in late 2018 pledging to boost crude output and prioritize the construction of what would be the country’s largest oil refinery. “Mexico is going backwards, back to the previous century or the one before, at a time when all the experts on the planet are in total agreement that we’re in a climate crisis,” Molina said.
David Alire Garcia, ‘Nobel-winning Mexican scientist calls for complete ban on fuel oil’, Reuters