A good electrical reform must consider the environmental impact and avoid the dispossession of communities: CEMDA

A reform to the Electricity Industry Act (LIE) was not necessary. Areas of opportunity have been seen, but not in the sense in which it has been proposed: relegating the use of renewable energy to the detriment of the environment, says Anaid Velasco, Research Coordinator of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA).

Just on March 2, the Senate of the Republic approved, with 68 votes in favor and 58 against, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's reform of the Electricity Industry Act. However, just twenty days later, he had accumulated 12 definitive suspensions out of the 33 admitted amparos.

“Although the constitutional controversy is based on economic competition, there are quite a few arguments from an environmental and human rights point of view that we believe indicate a guideline for achieving a final ruling that confirms that the reform of the LIE is not the best option,” says Anaid Velasco.

Why isn't it the best option? The purpose of the so-called “Fuel Oil Act” is to eliminate the economic criterion for the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to give priority to its own power plants over private renewable and combined cycle plants. The main drawback is that it includes giving preference to thermoelectric plants where fossil sources ranging from coal to fuel oil are used.

For supporters of reform, it means maintaining energy sovereignty. According to President López Obrador, it will help establish order in the national electricity system, avoiding abuses by domestic and foreign private companies that are also in the market.

While specialists against the modifications point out that the electricity reform will lead Mexico to a greater consumption of foreign fossil energies such as gas and obsolete ones such as fuel oil and coal.

This translates into effects on the environment and health, mainly. Anaid Velasco explains it this way:

“What is being done to generate electrical energy from fossil sources is that there will be more emissions. On the one hand, more greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change and, on the other hand, gases that we call pollutants, criteria that are measured according to people's health.”

The burning of fuels causes the emission of greenhouse gases, especially those with a high concentration of pollutants, such as sulfur that is produced by fuel oil. In turn, they can worsen conditions in people with asthma, recurrence of attacks, mobility problems, and others that impair quality of life.

This occurs at the Tula Thermoelectric Plant, Hidalgo, where sulfur dioxide and black carbon emissions from burning fuel affect the health of 22 million inhabitants of the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico, according to information from Greenpeace.

Neither with the private sector nor with the reform

For Anaid Velasco, the debate surrounding electricity reform is complicated by polarized opinions. “This division that if you don't agree to favor energy sovereignty then you're in favor of the dispossession of private individuals. The government has been unresponsible in dividing public opinion,” he says.

He adds that, although the reform should not be based on the rejection of renewable energy, there are also areas of opportunity in which it can work to strengthen the electricity industry from a sustainable perspective.

One of these areas of improvement, Velasco points out, is related to human rights violations against indigenous populations, who have been displaced by megaprojects of renewable energy.

Some of these projects require tracts of land to build large wind farms or solar farms. However, since previous six-year periods, disputes have been documented with local communities over the use of the territory and its natural resources, even leading to forced displacement.

For example, since 1994, in the area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, work began on the arrival of wind farms in the community of La Venta, municipality of Juchitán, due to the quality of the wind in the area.

The project was canceled in 2013 due to an amparo from the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. But in 2015, the company Eólica del Sur sought to install it in the community of San Dionisio del Mar.

Until 2017, in five municipalities in Oaxaca, there were 27 registered wind farms with more than 1,500 wind turbines. This is one of the areas of the country with the most complaints of dispossession due to these projects.

“In this sense, the LIE provides tools that at the time tried to mitigate these social harms [...] it was included in the impact assessment to provide free, prior and informed consultation in indigenous communities, however, it presents areas for improvement. For example, it has been said that consultation is not enough, you have to get the consent of the community. This is a pending issue,” explains Velasco.

In addition, he adds that a better environmental assessment can be carried out as an instrument from the planning of the national electricity system. This will help them detect the socio-environmental repercussions of having these wind farms or solar panels.

“CFE should be proactive to strengthen energy sovereignty. We (CEMDA) do not question that argument. But it would have to be from renewable sources [...] we are interested in communicating that this government could be generating renewable energy, not that only private individuals do it, the government could too,” says the Research Coordinator.

He believes that, given the wealth of natural resources in Mexico, the CFE should give priority to investing in energy distribution and transmission infrastructure while respecting environmental causes and human rights, without relying on fossil fuels.

“We are returning to a scenario of 20 years ago where energy transition actions were barely being encouraged, but with the difference that we now have more environmental damage. A positive part is that, apparently, judges are being quite receptive to arguments about human rights and environmental causes, but that's the sad thing, having to go to a judge,” he concludes.