SCJN endorsed the vote on the Electricity Industry Law

Unanimously, the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) endorsed the minutes of the session last April 7 in which it was determined to dismiss the action of unconstitutionality of the Electricity Industry Law (LIE) and in which the qualified majority of eight votes had not been reached.

The 11 ministers that make up the SCJN plenary session discussed the constitutional controversy brought by the government of Colima, which at that time was headed by Ignacio Peralta, in which it challenged the decree amending and adding various provisions of the Electricity Industry Law.

According to Milenio, Ministers Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo, Norma Lucia Piña Hernández, Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, and Luis María Aguilar decided to cast a clarifying vote on the approval of this act, which confirms the plenary vote of the country's highest court around the LIE.

It should be recalled that the Colimensian government had argued the invalidity of articles 3, sections V, XII, XII bis and XIV; 4, sections I and VI; 12, section I; 26; 53; 101; 108, sections V and VI; and 126, section II.

According to the challenges, the 2021 amendments to the Electricity Industry Act allow the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to have a monopoly on the transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as eliminating an environment of free competition in the electricity market.

In addition, it ensured that the right to a clean environment is violated by preventing the development of public policies that seek to promote the use of clean energy.

The vote came after opposition senators, led by Emilio Álvarez Icaza, demanded that the SCJN clarify the “contradictions” over the April 7 vote so that the constitutional appeal against the LIE has been dismissed.

It should be recalled that Minister Loretta Ortiz, in charge of drawing up the draft judgment, proposed that the constitutional dispute should be declared appropriate but unfounded, considering that they do not infringe free competition and competition or cause harm to the environment, thereby recognizing the validity of articles 3, sections V, XII, XII bis and XIV, 4, fractions I and VI, 12, 26, 53, 101, 108, fractions V and VI, and 116, fraction II.

“The exercise of exclusive power in the field of electric energy, provided for in article 73, section X, of the Federal Constitution, materialized in the issuance of the Decree on Amendments to the Electricity Industry Law, does not transcend or impact, nor does it constitute an obstacle or impediment to the exercise of concurrent powers in the matter of environmental prevention that the state of Colima has in accordance with the various fraction XXIX-G of that regulation, since the new regulatory design in the area of electricity was carried out without having a negative impact on the environment, constituting a measure of continuation of the energy transition and for progress in the generation of clean energy, by prioritizing the dispatch of hydroelectric plants and the promotion of the acquisition of more clean energy certificates”, concluded the Loretta Ortiz project.

However, specialists in the sector say that the approval of the Law on the Electrical Industry compromises production, supply, costs as well as the environment.

In the opinion of Ramses Pech, an analyst of the electrical and economic industry, the issue has ideological overtones, since the central issue should be how electricity will be generated and not who.

Ramses Pech stressed that in the Court's decision, the CFE remains as guarantor in domestic service “but not entirely in the wholesale electricity market and what we must bear in mind, most importantly, is that they give Cenace (National Energy Control Center) the specific weight so that it can continue to do the way it should be distributed and dispatched energy in our country,” he said in an interview with El Financiero Bloomberg.

It should be recalled that last Sunday night, April 17, the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies rejected with 275 votes in favor and 223 against, the opinion amending articles 4, 25, 27 and 28 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, on energy and access to electricity.

Despite the setback to the initiative of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador - one of the most important of the federal government - the president sent to the Chamber of Deputies an amendment to the Mining Law in order to “protect Lithium”, a mineral that is one of the most coveted, since it is necessary to manufacture computer batteries laptops, cell phones and other digital devices.

The amendment to the Mining Law was approved in Fast Track by the deputies and immediately sent to the Senate of the Republic, where it is already discussed in committees. According to the coordinator of the Senators of Morena, Ricardo Monreal, this Tuesday the law will be voted on and approved.

Opposition lawmakers warned that they will abstain from voting on the opinion by ensuring that it is a whim of the head of the executive.

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