Mexican Watchdog Urges Congress To Reject Power Market Reform

Mexico’s antitrust authority on Monday, February 15, urged lawmakers to reject a bill recently sent to Congress by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that aims to strengthen the position of the national power utility in the electricity market.

The Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) said in a statement that Lopez Obrador’s proposal would “seriously damage” the conditions of competition for generation and commercialization of electricity in Mexico.

The bill, which has already drawn the ire of leading business groups in Mexico and the United States, is due to be fast-tracked through Congress, where Lopez Obrador’s ruling party and its allies hold a comfortable majority.

COFECE’s recommendation to Congress is the latest in a series of disputes between the watchdog and the president over his drive to give the state more control over the energy market.

Earlier this month, Mexico’s Supreme Court upheld a complaint by COFECE that a number of measures taken by Lopez Obrador to help the national power utility, the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), were unconstitutional.

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