Morena gave in to some of the points demanded by the opposition and has proposed maintaining the autonomy of the energy market regulators, according to the draft of the opinion that will go up to the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies next Sunday.
The presidential initiative contained a paragraph that incorporated the functions and attributions of both organisms to the Secretary of Energy. With this, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) would lose the autonomy granted to them in the secondary legislation that emanates from the 2013 energy reform.
But, the opinion that will go up to the plenary session on Sunday for its vote would eliminate the paragraph in which the figure of coordinated regulatory bodies in energy matters is deleted, under which the organisms that act as supervisors of private and state companies currently operate. CFE and Pemex .
In a final version of the opinion, it is argued that the permanence of the Energy Regulatory Commission is necessary to transmit a message of transparency to the market.
But despite the fact that its continuity as an autonomous regulator has been accepted, the latest version of the initiative maintains that it requires changes so that it adapts to the new way in which the electricity market is conceived, which “conceives electricity as a public good of collective utility”.
“Consequently, the CRE must adjust its regulatory framework, philosophy, mission and vision to the new order, which will result in transparency and the achievement of legitimate competition among private electricity generators,” says the document.
The maintenance of both organizations is one of the points of the initiative presented a few days ago by the opposition and one of the most critical points for the industry, which had requested their permanence to give certainty to the market and avoid favoring the two companies. state.
The change would have been made to try to add some of the votes that the president’s party needs to take his reform to the Senate.
Energy market regulators have consistently remained in the public eye. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has accused them of having benefited private companies during the past six-year term and their independence has been called into question on several occasions, with constant changes among their commissioners and the paralysis of some important processes, such as the issuance of permits that allow new entrants to enter the market.
