Mexicali, Mexico.- Virtual president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum warned this Friday that, during her six-year term, the State will maintain dominance in the country’s electricity sector.
During her third joint tour with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate who won the June 2 elections announced that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) must retain at least 54 percent of energy generation and that planning control will remain in the public sector.
“The president set a new goal with which we agree: generation of at least 54 percent by the State and 46 percent by the private sector, and the planning being conducted by the Mexican State,” he said.
Facing CFE director Manuel Bartlett, Sheinbaum criticized the privatization attempts that occurred with various reforms in past administrations, and made it clear that, for her, energy sovereignty will be a priority.
“Today we can say that the Federal Electricity Commission has been rescued. Why is a strong CFE important for everyone? Although this question may seem minor, it is to meet the major objectives of any energy system in the world: sovereignty, accessible, low-cost energy, for the development of the population.
“Reducing environmental impacts and also the ability to respond to adversities, which today is elegantly called resilience in attempts to have the free market dictate the management of strategic sectors and which has not worked anywhere in the world,” he said.
In his speech, López Obrador praised Sheinbaum’s vision and expressed his confidence that by the end of his term, the CFE would be able to account for 61 percent of electricity generation in the country. He also promised his successor that she would not increase the price of tariffs.
“If we had continued with the same policy, the CFE would be generating only 16 percent of the energy consumed in the country and now we are generating 54 percent and with the new plants that were purchased, we will be generating 61 percent of national consumption, we can now say: we fulfilled the CFE’s rescue,” he said.
“A very good piece of news, you have just heard it, is that the next constitutional president has committed herself, and she is a woman, as I have already said, with convictions, that she will not raise the price of electricity in our country in real terms.”
In addition, López Obrador also took the opportunity to promise Bartlett that the profits generated this year by the CFE will be used to pay the subsidy for electricity rates in states where high temperatures are recorded.
“There is a reasonable profit, so I have already reached an agreement with Mr. Bartlett so that this year the profits that the CFE has will be used to finance the subsidy for electricity consumers,” he said.
“The CFE will contribute the profits we have now, with the purpose of maintaining the subsidy not only in Baja California, but also in Sonora, in Sinaloa, in Baja California Sur and up to Nayarit in the summer.”
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