Mexico presents plan to shutter private power plants

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has presented details of a plan that is likely to squeeze out private power generating plants and may provoke complaints under the Mexico-U.S.-Canada free trade accord. The constitutional reform presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would cancel contracts under which 34 private plants sell power into the national grid. The plan declares “illegal” another 239 private plants that sell energy direct to corporate clients. It guarantees the government utility a market share of “at least” 54%, contradicting  promises to reserve 46% for private companies. Many of the private plants were built by foreign investors under a 2013 reform.