Throughout the administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a main grievance of energy sector members has centered on the inability to obtain proper permitting to continue or complete projects, such as natural gas pipelines or power plants, in a timely fashion. 

Much of the delays had to do with López Obrador’s dramatic overhaul of the energy industry, which included considerable staff reductions at the Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE) and the Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH). Market participants also complained of government efforts to cancel or deny private electricity generation permits to assure that state utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) would generate more than 54% of the country’s power needs. 

In recent comments at...