The environmental organization Greenpeace criticized that the electricity reform opens the possibility of returning to the state monopoly in the sector.
MEXICO, (OCTOBER 06, 2021).- The environmental organization Greenpeace pointed out on Tuesday that the electricity reform proposal for the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador , opens the possibility of returning to the state monopoly in the sector, which it described as a “serious mistake and a setback.”
After an analysis of the initiative, carried out by the Greenpeace Mexico energy and climate change specialist , Pablo Ramírez , the organization criticized, through a statement , the fact that the strategic area of electricity corresponds “exclusively to the Nation” .
This implies, Greenpeace indicates, generating, conducting, transforming, distributing and supplying electrical energy, which definitively cancels the possibility of developing community generation projects.
The group pointed out that the modification may have implications “in a distributed generation since by granting the State exclusivity for generation, the possibility that private parties (including people in their own homes) can generate electricity would be canceled, returning to the scheme of absolute state monopoly ”that existed for a long time.
This would undoubtedly be a serious mistake and a setback on the road to democratizing energy, “the organization pointed out and stated that” distributed generation projects have served to combat inequities and generate access to energy for sectors of the population that suffered from energy poverty ”.
Greenpeace considers that, as the security and reliability parameters are not defined, “there is enormous discretion over which technologies will be a priority for the dispatch.”
“What the rest of the initiative makes clear to us is that renewable energies (in the text” intermittent “) are not considered safe or reliable by the authorities, so they will not be considered in the dispatch, despite having much lower leveled costs”.
In addition, he mentioned that “the use of expensive, inefficient and polluting technologies to generate electricity will mean that the price of electricity will increase” so that “the high cost of generation will have to be reflected in the electricity rate” that results in a higher subsidy, which in the end comes from public money, via taxes.
Stop the Electricity Reform
This Tuesday, the Business Coordinating Council ( CCE ), a Mexican business leadership, asked Congress to stop the reform .
It is very important that legislators take it into account with a high view, not only as a political commitment, but also what are the important consequences for our country ”, the president of the CCE, Carlos Salazar, underlined in a virtual press conference.
López Obrador sent his constitutional reform initiative to Congress last Thursday to establish that the state company Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has 54% of the generation market in the country, regulate contracts with private companies and abolish autonomous regulators.
The remaining 46% will be kept for private companies so that there is “authentic and true competition,” he pointed out.
The ruling coalition, led by the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), does not hold a qualified majority of two thirds of Congress to approve constitutional reforms, so it will need to agree with the opposition.
Also on Tuesday, López Obrador defended the reform and said it will prevent “increases in the price of electricity” and pressured the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to vote in favor.
Source: López Dóriga
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