Mexican presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez on Monday applauded a recent Supreme Court ruling that invalidated one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s most controversial energy policies. 

Mexico’s high court deemed unconstitutional a set of modifications to Mexico’s electricity industry law (LIE) that sought to prioritize the dispatch of electricity from power plants owned by state utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) – regardless of cost – over cheaper, privately owned generation resources.

The reform also would have eliminated the obligation for CFE, Mexico’s largest power distributor, to procure electricity via competitive auctions. Natural gas-fired plants supply about 60% of Mexico’s electricity. 

Competitive auctions and private...