Judge pauses new Mexican electricity law, local media says (updated)
11/03/2021 18:15
(Adds background, context)
MEXICO CITY, March 11 (Reuters) - A Mexican federal judge
has ordered a temporary freeze to a new electricity-market law
championed by the government that strengthens national power
company CFE at the expense of the private sector, local media
reported Thursday.
The contentious bill fast-tracked through Congress this
month gives plants of the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE)
priority in sending electricity they generate to the grid even
if they use more polluting fuel oil and coal as power sources.
Under the bill, CFE will no longer be obliged to buy energy
through auctions and could reverse contracts with independent
energy producers signed under past governments.
CFE can also revoke so-called self-supply power generation
permits under the law, which President Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador argues was necessary to restore balance to a market
skewed in favor of the private sector.
Renewable power generation has attracted much of the recent
investment in energy infrastructure, and the new rules have
upset both Mexico's private sector and many of the country's top
trading allies.
Business lobbies say that the bill breaches Mexico's
investor commitments under the North America trade deal.
Supporters of renewable power and environmentalists argue
the government is not meeting pledges to clean up Mexico's
environment. Lopez Obrador denies this and frequently points to
major tree-planting efforts in the South of the country.
The length of the freeze on the law was not immediately
clear.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia
Editing by Dave Graham and Cynthia Osterman)
((david.aliregarcia@thomsonreuters.com; +52 55 5282 7151;
Reuters Messaging:
david.aliregarcia.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))