In his morning conference, AMLO attacked BIMBO and FEMSA, two large Mexican companies that create thousands of jobs. Both companies responded to him.
MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador revealed that Walmart and Bimbo took legal action against the reform to the Electricity Industry Law, for which he considered “they should be ashamed.”
In his morning conference, López Obrador assured that these two companies obtain benefits such as subsidies.
Fomento Económico Mexicano (FEMSA) said that in 2020 Oxxo convenience stores paid the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) 1,576 million pesos, while Grupo Bimbo responded that it pays the electricity rates applicable to the countries where it operates.
Both companies reacted to the statement made in the morning by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who said that Walmart and Bimbo filed an injunction against the new Electricity Industry Law because they received subsidies. The President said that “a low or middle-class family pays more than what an Oxxo pays for electricity, and the owner of a grocery store in a neighborhood, a neighborhood, a town, pays much more than what an Oxxo pays.”
The Oxxo operator pointed out that “on average, each store connected to a wind farm pays 14 thousand 52 pesos per month for renewable energy.”
He noted that this cost includes payments to CFE such as porting, transmission lines, and a fixed charge for being part of the national electricity grid. He pointed out that renewable sources supply 70 percent of the facilities, as they have contracts with five wind farms.
The rest of the energy, he said, is supplied by CFE, so the average monthly payment goes directly to the state-owned company. “For these concepts, in 2020, Oxxo paid the CFE 1,576 million pesos,” he pointed out. “Grupo Bimbo pays in full its electricity rates in accordance with the applicable legislation in each of the countries where it operates,” the bakery company said.
It added that its plants’ operation in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, France, United Kingdom, Italy, and Turkey, among other countries, is done with wind photovoltaic or hydraulic energy in whole or part.
“At the close of 2020, 80 percent of the electric energy consumed by the company already came from clean and renewable sources, contributing decisively to the care of the environment,” they said.
AMLO also mentioned Walmart de México. The retail chain consumes 63 percent of its energy from renewable sources and has invested 519 million pesos in sustainable initiatives. Other companies that also purchase renewable energy from private companies include Audi, Chedraui, Pepsico, and Soriana.
The Mexican Wind Energy Association (AMDEE) and the Mexican Solar Energy Association (Asolmex) are confident that the rest of the appeals against the electricity reform application will be resolved definitively.
“As in the case of the provisional suspensions, where there was a unity of criteria of the specialized judges, we trust that there will also be unity of criteria in granting the definitive suspension in the rest of the Amparo trials,” they said. This occurred after the Second District Court in Administrative Matters, which specialized in economic competition, granted two definitive suspensions.
The head of the Ministry of Energy (Sener), Rocio Nahle Garcia, did not comment on the matter, and neither did the agency under her charge.
The Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) asked to respect the electric reform suspension and considered that the Executive should not only comply with the judicial mandate but also rethink its proposal to reform the Electric Industry Law based on technical arguments.
He reiterated that maintaining the modifications could mean irreparable damage to the economy, health, and the environment. “We require solutions that are based on technical reasoning, not political or ideological ones,” They said.
