A lot of memes jumped on yesterday’s oil pipeline fire in the Gulf blaming things like capitalism or Exxon lobbyists. But the gas leak was from Pemex, the Mexican state-owned oil company. Pemex is an example of actual socialism in practice, not capitalism.

▪️Pemex says it took more than 5 hours to put out, but the fire now appears to be extinguished. Pemex blamed a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze, although the Mexican oil regulators claimed the incident “did not generate a spill.” No injuries were reported.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/fire-offshore-pemex-platform-gulf-mexico-under-control-2021-07-02/

▪️Pemex was created in 1938 when the Mexican President signed an order expropriating the assets of foreign oil companies (mostly British and American) and barred any foreign oil companies from operating in Mexico. In other words, their government stole the equipment and effort of those companies and socialized their oil industry, much like other Middle Eastern nations and Venezuela did.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/mexican-oil

▪️Pemex has a long record of major accidents in its facilities and a terrible track record on pollution.

🔹In 1979, an explosion at their Ixtop well in the Gulf near the Texas coast was the largest oil spill at the time. Oil spilled for months. At the beginning, 30K barrels/day spilled into the Gulf. Pemex then pumped mud into their pipes, which only reduced it to 20K barrels/day. Relief wells were eventually drilled, reducing it to 10K/day, which was still catastrophic. 71,500 barrels washed up on US shores, polluting 162 miles of waterfront. This devastated the sea turtles in that region, taking decades to recover.

🔹In 1984, their poorly managed facility in Mexico City went up in flames, setting off a series of massive explosions killing more than 500 people. Another 200 were killed in an explosion in Guadalajara in 1992.

🔹Unguarded pipelines were attacked by Mexican terrorists in 2007, causing leaks and explosions. Later that year one of their rigs also collided with a drilling platform, killing 22 workers.

🔹Pemex dumped chemicals into the Coatzacoalcos River killing most of the fish and bankrupting local fishermen. During the worst periods, the river would catch fire every couple months. Nearby groundwater was also poisoned, leaving residents without drinking water or irrigation for farms.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko_mAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=pemex+socialized&source=bl&ots=OQrxdohzx5&sig=ACfU3U2IqLuNdEkzOvI1Imzm3aDiLzgsMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjV85DjnsfxAhVKkWoFHTfRCaQQ6AEwEXoECBgQAw#v=onepage&q=pemex%20socialized&f=false

▪️When private companies have spills, they are generally held accountable for damages and reparations. For example, BP put aside $20B within weeks during their Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010. In contrast, Pemex invoked sovereign immunity and refused to pay almost anything in their Gulf spill.

▪️Similar stories occur with many state-run and socialized oil companies. There is seldom accountability, because it requires the government to punish itself. Good luck getting China to pony up money for damages if a SinoPec spill causes damage to your property or nation.

▪️But yet the belief still exists that it’s capitalism which is the source of pollution in the world. This sometimes reaches absurd evasions as with Chinese Communist Party officials who long claimed that pollution couldn’t exist in socialist countries because it was an “evil inherent in capitalism” even as they saw environmental devastation before them on a massive scale.