Mexico’s Power Plants Burning Fuel So Dirty Ships Can’t Use It
- Fuel oil emits 16% more CO2 than gas in basic power plants
- Domestic use of sulfurous fuel oil at highest in three years
A thermoelectric power plant in Villa de Reyes, Mexico.
Photographer: Mauricio Palos/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Fuel that is so dirty that the global shipping industry banned its use last year is being burned at the highest level in three years in Mexican power plants.
With the global shipping industry shunning sulfurous fuel oil to curb emissions, storage tanks in Mexico are overflowing with the stuff, a byproduct of its attempt to produce more gasoline domestically. The solution Mexico has chosen is to push more of it into electricity generation, replacing cleaner-burning natural gas. Consumption of the dirty fuel jumped by almost 50% in the past year to more than a 100,000 barrels a day in March, according to government data.