Amy Stillman and Max de Haldevang, Bloomberg News
MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 04 08 2022
Mexico’s Supreme Court rejected parts of a government-backed electricity law on Thursday, leaving the door open to further legal action even as the judges didn’t declare the entire law unconstitutional.
While the nation’s top judges didn’t reach the super majority needed to reject the law that modifies the country’s electricity market, companies affected by the rejected articles will still be able to apply for lower court injunctions against it.
The result is a partial victory for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in his quest to concentrate the energy industry in the hands of the state at the expense of private companies, which were seeking a full repeal of the law.
AMLO, as the president is known, is seeking to boost the market presence of state utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, and dial back the liberalizing reforms of his predecessor that opened Mexico’s energy industry to private investment between 2013 and 2014. The law approved by congress in March 2021 aims to give CFE priority access to the grid over private renewable projects.
Yet shortly after its passage it faced a flurry of suspensions by judges from specialized competition courts, and the decision over its constitutionality was brought to the country’s supreme court to be resolved.
The 11-judge court was split in its votes, with several magistrates voting partially in favor and against different articles in the case under consideration, making it difficult to make a broad assessment and reach the eight votes needed for a super majority.
bloomberg.com 04 07 2022