Breathe
By Rosanety Barrios
What does not kill us, makes us stronger. F. Nietzche
Now the countdown has begun. We are only a few days away from Mexico being governed by its first female president in history. This president, with great experience in energy and climate change issues, faces extraordinary challenges, perhaps the most complex our country has ever experienced.
Having published the judicial reform and awaiting the secondary laws, a couple of other reforms, directly related to energy, are in the queue of pending ones. The first one to give the CFE a preponderant role and the second one to eliminate the regulatory agencies. This reform covers constitutionally independent agencies and energy regulators, which do not have that status, but their possible disappearance will have an impact on the sector.
The intention of this column is to provide my kind readers with elements to form criteria and determine the pros and cons of regulators in the context of a new industrial organization in energy. To do so, I will use a single example, the classification as confidential that the Board of Directors of Petróleos Mexicanos made of the information of the new Olmeca refinery, located in Dos Bocas, Tabasco.
The decision was made based on the following argument: "the disclosure of the information, without the proper context, could not only negatively affect our company, but also compromise the security and economic interests of the Mexican State, given that this is a project of great national relevance".
What will be the "adequate context" imagined by the Council? If Dos Bocas was built with money we all pay via taxes, isn't that enough context to aspire to transparency? This is as far as I will leave the example.
Let us return then to the new industrial organization, in which CFE and Pemex have a "preponderant" role. I cannot fail to point out that such preponderance has subsisted throughout national history, with all the reforms implemented in the 20th and 21st centuries, and that such preponderance was perfectly sustainable over time, as long as our champions were efficient, but it is okay, let us think that we are reinventing ourselves from scratch and that both CFE and Pemex will be born again in October 2024.
In this organization, which entity will be the one to sit down with Pemex and CFE and review their operation? Because that is what the sector regulators used to do. To give an example, if CFE wanted to generate energy, it had to request a permit from the CRE and to determine its tariffs, it is the CRE that is in charge of defining which costs are passed on to Mexicans and which are not, because they are excessive, inadequate, unacceptable, etc.
In the case of Pemex and oil, the CNH's task was to ensure that the exploration and production of Mexico's hydrocarbons was carried out in accordance with the most demanding techniques, so that society as a whole could enjoy the highest oil income without putting anyone at risk.
This same exercise was repeated with the projects in charge of the private initiative, both in the CRE and in the CNH. Because being regulated is about complying with the rules that a strong authority establishes.
It is still not very clear what is proposed to replace the role of the energy regulators. There are several options, one is to return them to being decentralized agencies of SENER, as they were for decades, another is their complete disappearance and that they become general directorates within the Ministry of Energy.
Although some may think that either of the two options works, I believe it is essential to remember that what we are looking for is a strong State, which means a serious, respectable and trustworthy authority. Three qualities that come from a deep knowledge of the matter, a transparent and agile operation and, undoubtedly, from solid faculties, stemming from a stable and accurate legal framework.
I have no doubt that there is more than one way to implement the configuration of a strong State, whose exercise stimulates the creation of a shared welfare, hand in hand with private initiative.
Just remember that in both state and private companies, incentives must be aligned to avoid bad practices, corruption, abuse and social damage, since they do not arise automatically, there is the example of Dos Bocas, surely there are those who want the information to be confidential, but what about the rest of Mexicans? Is it convenient for us to ignore what is done with our taxes? Is it convenient for us to lose the supervision of an Authority (with a capital letter) in this matter?
The series of incentives aligned to the achievement of the objectives is called governance and this will rest, as of October 1, with the first female president of our country.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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