page_title: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
section_title: Energy policy
hierarchical_section_title: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner / Presidency (2007–2015) / Energy policy
caption_attribution_description: Español: La presidenta Cristina Fernández hace uso de la palabra durante el acto en el Salón Mujeres Argentinas de la Casa de Gobierno. Detrás de ella, el gobernador de Buenos Aires, Daniel Scioli, el de San Juan, José Luis Gioja y el de Corrientes, Ricardo Colombi.
context_page_description: Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, sometimes referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who has served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also previously served as President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015 and the First Lady during her husband, Néstor Kirchner's tenure. She was the third woman to hold the Argentine vice presidency, the second woman to hold the Argentine presidency, the first directly elected female president, and the first woman re-elected to the office. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a Peronist and a social democrat, with her political approach called Kirchnerism.
  Born in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, she studied law at the University of La Plata, and moved to Patagonia with her husband Néstor Kirchner upon graduation. She was elected to the provincial legislature; her husband was elected mayor of Río Gallegos. She was elected national senator in 1995, and had a controversial tenure, while her husband was elected governor of Santa Cruz Province. In 1994, she was also elected to the constituent assembly that amended the Constitution of Argentina.
context_section_description: In 2002, Eduardo Duhalde fixed the prices for public services such as electricity, gas and water supply. These remained fixed during the terms of Duhalde and Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, despite the crisis that motivated them having ended. As the inflation rate grew during the period, the state financed part of these prices with subsidies. Investment in these areas decreased, and the generation and distribution networks suffered. Argentina lost its self-supply of energy, and had to import it, rather than being able to export surpluses.
  Kirchner proposed a fiscal austerity program in early 2012, including the gradual removal of subsidies. The proposal turned out to be unpopular, and was not implemented. She opted instead to send a bill to Congress for the renationalization of YPF, privatized in 1993, blaming the Spanish company Repsol for the energy trade deficit. The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies by a 207-32 margin. It was criticized as an authoritarian move, as there was no negotiation with Repsol. As well, the Vaca Muerta oil field had been discovered by this time. However, YPF was unable to afford the costs to exploit the oil at the site, and the rights to drill at Vaca Muerta were sold to the Chevron Corporation. The costs of energy imports increased the trade deficit and the inflation rate, and power outages became frequent. Outages usually took place on the hottest days of the summer season, as the use of air conditioning increased electricity consumption to peak levels.
caption: President Kirchner announces the bill to renationalize YPF
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