So many administrations and authorities have created plans and proposals for the national energy sector. Despite telling the world about our renewable energy capacities and making promise after promise, we are still in bad shape, importing expensive petroleum derivatives and not taking advantage of renewable energy nor opening up the market.
Currently, 65% of the energy used here in Costa Rica comes from hydrocarbons that leave polluting gases. The generation of greenhouse gases increased 76% from 1990 to 2017.
The country went through 12 million barrels of hydrocarbon derivatives in 2003 but used 22 million in 2019, then this consumption dropped a bit, due to the pandemic, to 17.2 million and then shot up to almost 21 million barrels in 2021.
From December 2020 to August 2022, we saw a 94% increase in the price of regular gasoline, 107% increase for super, and 122% increase for diesel.
We are not the only country for foreign direct investments so we need to be competitive in every way possible. We have higher electricity rates than Mexico and the United States, for example. Electricity prices affect the investment climate greatly.
Our energy security is unstable and vulnerable because of high dependence on imported energy. We need to pick up where we left off on so many clean energy initiatives and should also open the market so that in the future we can create renewable energy right here in Costa Rica at competitive prices.
The Government hopes to present a new bill by November that would clear up bottlenecks in the sale of electricity and surplus energy as well as lower prices for sectors which are highly dependent on fossil fuels.
