The public interest, not the market, will govern Pemex and CFE: Sheinbaum

With the constitutional reform in energy matters, what is intended is that Petróleos Mexicanos and the Federal Electricity Commission will return to being public companies, so The market will not be its main function, but the public servicesaid President Claudia Sheinbaum. In parallel, preponderance will be given to the operation of the CFE, in contrast to what happened in the past, when the National Energy Control Center opted for private companies.

“Who decides what goes through the transmission networks? The Cenace. Before it was said: ‘Well, the private ones have preponderance due to a series of rules.’ Now the Constitution says: ‘No, the Federal Electricity Commission has preponderance.’ Even hydroelectric plants, clean energy, were not considered renewable, now, with this reform, yes,” he emphasized.

He stressed that this will guarantee that the CFE’s participation in energy generation is 54 percent, as established since the last six-year term, and private initiative 46 percent. The contracts will be respected, but in the self-supply model that opened the energy reform of 2013, he commented that There are many protections related to these approaches. Our objective is not to fight with the private sector, but simply to sit at a table about the new rules, which are the decision made by the people of Mexico.

Sheinbaum explained that this constitutional reform will allow changes in secondary laws so, although the participation of private companies will be respected, with the return to the concept of public companies, CFE and Pemex will be able to be more efficient by regaining preponderance. The private ones will be able to generate 46 percent. Under what schemes? Starting from energy planning, which is what must exist in any country, and the definition of very clear rules: how they can invest, where they can invest and under what conditions in this market.

During the conference, the scope of the constitutional reforms in energy and railway matters were explained. Regarding the latter, the general director of the Railway Transportation Regulatory Agency, Andrés Lajous, said that the reform in this matter aims to elevate State control in the operation of passenger trains to constitutional status (which was lost with the changes in the six-year term) which may be through a public company or through concessions.

A trenes, 150 mil mdp

In this regard, the president announced that by 2025 an allocation of 150 billion pesos is considered for railway projects. but don’t worry, because the deficit will decrease, it’s all republican austerity. Lajous mentioned that in total, the railways in the country add up to 18 thousand kilometers and in this six-year period the projects that are being considered add up to 3 thousand kilometers.

Regarding the energy reform, the Secretary of Energy, Luz Elena González, pointed out that some aspects contained in the reform that is in Congress reverse the effects that Pemex and CFE suffered with the constitutional changes of 2013 when, by converting them into productive companies of the State, they transferred its legal framework to commercial law, and not to the public.

With this, he explained, specific areas previously reserved for the State were opened to private initiative in the exploitation of hydrocarbons; In terms of electrical energy, it opened the market to private initiative and placed the CFE at a disadvantage, in a scheme of competition with private companies, privileging profitability over energy security. He highlighted that this situation began to be corrected in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.