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The success of a rainwater harvesting system in Mexico City which gets more rain than London, England. The rainwater harvesting system was setup by Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist. It provides 100,000 rainwater harvesting units in two districts in the city. It fills a 2500 lite collection tank that can be used for bathing, laundry, and washing easing the strain on the water grid. This system is cheaper and more efficient.

Water supply in Mexico City remains mismanaged. Most water gets pumped from dams 125 miles away, with 40% lost through leaks in pipes and containers. 

Today only 2% of water gets harvested when it could be 8-10% if new methods are adopted and governments take on the task. It may not be available in the dry season but in places where rainfall is plentiful it can be a vital resource.

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Enrique Pena Nieto talks with the Journal's O'Grady. He would like to seee a consitutional amendment that allows private investment in Pemex, Mexico's state owned oil company..

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A report by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the best approach to tackle drug related violence in Mexico and new approaches to ensure public safety. The report says it may take ten years, or even a generation to reform Mexico's poorly trained, ineffective and in many cases corrupt police and courts. The new focus on police and courts and training comes as it is reported that only 2 percent of reported crimes in Mexico lead to convictions. Some reports point to middle class fears of taking cases to the police because of corruption. This report in the U.S. comes as a new president takes office in Mexico with a different approach to the drug war.

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DJT on Canada "lives because of the US," and Carney's referencing the relationship and saying "Canada does not live because of the US." Rupture in relations started earlier but was mended. This time Carney takes the first step after visiting Beijing to clearly distance Canada from the US in speeches at Davos, by being openly critical of US policies. This does not bode well for negotiations onthe USMCA agreement that is being rewritten. Disputes with Mexico continues over US preference to strike on land against drug cartels in Mexico that are trafficking drugs to the US with loss of hundreds of thousands of lives more than the Korean and Vietnam wars, and World War 1 combined over the last decade. The USMCA involves negotiations with Mexico and Canada. The Border has been secured but like Eisenhower in 1954 DJT faces the problem of how to send back the surge in migrants that entered the border illegally through Mexico with the Mexican government not intervening and the Biden/Harris/Mayorkas government failing to secure it -asking for legislation as late as 2024 when most of the illegal entry had already happened. In 1954 Eisenhower organized Operation Wetback to do this, which is now underway in the US in a different way by DJT in 2026 with the clear focus on getting criminal activity out. ...

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1. ACCELERATION OF DECLINING PRODUCTION FROM GULF OF MEXICO AS DRILLING RIGS LEAVE THE GULF. Offshore oil production mostly in the Gulf fell by 19% between 2003 and 2005. Natural gas production fell by about 22% from 2001 to 2004, according to EIA. The drilling rigs jack-up rigs and deep-water rigs that drill for oil and gas are declining rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. There were 148 rigs in 2001, now only 90 remain with more leaving soon. Many of the rigs that are leaving are jack-up rigs, used for drilling for natural gas in shallower waters, and this should lead to a pronounced effect on natural gas production. Gulf Gas reservoirs that use these jack-up rigs are quickly exhausted requiring new wells to be drilled to just maintain production. Fewer rigs available mean upward pressure on natural gas prices more so than oil because gas is a market supplied locally. EIA estimates natural gas will move from recent close (July 5, 2006) of $6.10 per million BTU's to a price of $10.00 by end of 2007. This compares with a price in 2001 of $2.43. Hurrican related disruptions pushed oil prices up by $10 a barrel for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in each of two years, so there will be continued upward pressure on oil price from this acceleration in production declines in the Gulf. 2. SEA CHANGE IN THE OFFSHORE DRILLING RIG MARKET, IN DAY RATES, IN PREFERRED DRILLING LOCATIONS, AND IN RIG PRODUCTION. The hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 5 rigs. What is a bigger effect is that drilling companies are signing longterm deals with companies overseas. Global Santa Fe Corp. for instance signed a deal last month to send 4 jack-up rigs to Saudi Aramco at $160,000 per day, for 4 years. Ensco International will send one to Tunisia at rates approaching $200,000 for 2 years. There are hotter prospects for petroleum offshore in the Middle east, and in Africa, whereas the easier drilling spots in the Gulf have already been tapped. Worldwide 91 major offshore rigs are under construction compared to 10 in 2003 according to ODS-Petrodata. The new rigs may take till 2009 and may have delays so as to come out after 2009. They cost $160-190 million for one jack-up rig and about $600 million for one deep-water rig. All this has pushed day rates throug the roof. BP PLC agreed to pay Transocean Inc $520,000 a day for three years for a massive drill ship. The same ship cost BP PLC $185,000 a day in 2004. The drilling ship is as large as 3 football fields and can drill in oceans upto 10,000 feet deep. ...

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Google's Eric Schmidt on how new technology can provide an innovation advantage in the fight against organized drug trafficking gangs in Mexico.

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Enrique Pena Nieto, assumes office as the new president of Mexico in Nov. 2012. His focus is on implementing a 13 point agenda which includes crime prevention, better schooling and employment opportunties, new train lines, expanding internet access, and support for social programs for the poor. He said there were two Mexico's - one that was benefitting from the global economy and modernization, and the other which was falling behind and hurting Mexico's image abroad. Economist Videgaray, close advisor to Nieto, is now the new Finance Minister. Videgaray says there is a common misconception that the PRI which ruled Mexico for so long is back in power. But times have changed. The PRI of today is no longer the PRI of yesterday, and understands that it like any other party can be voted out of power if it does not provide good government, says Videgaray. The focus of the new government will be on efficiency and modernization. Doing this will require the cooperation of the opposition parties, as Nieto won only 38% of the vote in a three way election against Mota and Obrador. He does not control Congress and the PRI opposed the legislation of the Calderon government during its term in office....

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The conditions in the Mexican Navy and Army and why the army and navy are failing in the war with drug cartels. They are woefully underpaid, with few benefits, and poorly equiped, and in some situations lacking the basic equipment in acorrupt system. THis is an account of a Mexican military officer's wife.

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How seriously are the Border Crossing encounters with migrants being taken by the Biden administration compared to the Trump administration, or earlier administrations Republican and Democrats. Pew Research Center provides these 7 charts and other data. In 2021 border crossing encounters with migrants were shown as 1.6 million. Of this 27% were repeat crossings a number much lower in previous years. It had fallen to just 400,000 in 2020 as the policy of expulsion put in place by the Trump administration was continued by the Biden administration. In 2019 the border crossing encounters with migrants after three years of the Border Wall construction under president Trump were 851,000. The Biden adminstration in 2021 had 52% expulsions compared to Trump administration 66% in April 2020 after invoking public health Title 42 which Biden continued. About 33% said the Trump administration was doing a good or somewhat good job in 2019 compared to 29% for Biden in 2021. But a much lower percentage of Republicans were saying Trump was doing a bad job than the 56% of Democrats saying that for Biden today. The previous surge in 2021 was mainly from Guatemala and Central America. The current surge is from about 400,000 migrants from Venezuela where expulsion does not work as well because the US has cut off relations with the government of Mr. Maduro in Venezuela, There are 7.1 million refugees from that country in Latin America. The Trump administration would have faced similar problems with the Venezuelan surge that the Biden administration is facing. The largest jump in 2021 is in Yuma Arizona 12 fold, two fold in Tucson and San Diego, three fold in El Paso, the Del Rio and Rio Grande up 5 times.    ...