The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled on Wednesday that changes in the regulations for the country’s electricity market give preference to the state-owned enterprise over private generators.
The ruling is a setback for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s plans to restore the dominance of state-owned energy companies, and bodes ill for a bill he passed in Congress this week, giving state-owned CFE a powerful position in power. would give. market.
It could also lead to a confrontation between the court and the president, a nationalist who sought to reverse the key elements of a historic revamp of the energy sector carried out under his predecessor and ended Mexico’s state monopoly on the oil market. and electricity markets for larger private investment.
Analysts say Mexican courts appear as an obstacle for Mr. Lopez Obrador to centralize power. A number of lower court rulings have taken place against the government in the energy sector, and the Supreme Court has stopped the government from lowering the salaries of senior officials at autonomous institutions such as the central bank.
Wednesday’s ruling by a 4-1 vote highlights key aspects of a policy published by the Ministry of Energy last year that requires the national power grid operator to take electricity generated by CFE before cheaper options from private generators that have invested billions of dollars in the country. , especially in wind and solar power stations. The ministry argued that the change was necessary to ensure network reliability.