Mexico’s parties and energy: Pemex, CFE, fracking, renewables

In October 2024, Congress amended three articles of the Constitution so that Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the state electricity company, stopped being “productive state companies” and became “state public companies.” The new name comes with a rule: in the electricity industry, private firms may take part as the law allows, but “in no case shall they prevail” over the public company. Oil and gas underground still cannot be granted as concessions; they are extracted through assignments to the public companies or through contracts with them or with private firms (DOF, 31 October 2024).

In March 2025 came the laws that put that amendment into practice: those on the CFE and Pemex, the Electricity Sector Law, the Hydrocarbons Sector Law and the Energy Planning and Transition Law, among others. The Electricity Sector Law puts a number on “prevailing”: the state must keep at least 54% of the energy fed into the grid each year, and in mixed investment projects the public company must hold at least 54% (DOF, 18 March 2025).

This analysis covers how each party voted on those two reforms and where it stands on the six statements in the test topic “Energy and the environment”. Positions with an asterisk (*) are estimated: the party has taken no stance on that particular statement, so its view is inferred from what it has said about nearby issues. There are 14 of them out of 48, almost all on fracking, nuclear plants and mining, which several parties do not address in their documents. SOMOS and Partido PAZ, registered since 2026, have no deputies or votes yet: what is said about them comes from their founding documents and is provisional, because their platforms are registered in January 2027.

The two votes

Votes in general, according to the Parliamentary Gazette; the total includes one deputy with no group, who voted for both. Morena, the PT and the PVEM backed both; the PAN and the PRI rejected them (except for one PRI deputy in 2024). Movimiento Ciudadano is the only group that switched sides: it opposed the constitutional amendment and supported its laws in general, although it then rejected the reserved articles (0 to 20).

Pemex and the CFE versus private companies

The topic’s first statement asks whether private firms ought to compete with Pemex and the CFE on a level playing field. The votes above explain it almost entirely.

The three groups that voted in favor strongly disagree: Morena, the PT and the PVEM. Morena’s 2024 platform also calls for consolidating the two companies and strengthening, in the energy sector, “the role of the public sector,” and the PT wants strategic sectors and the energy surplus back under state control.

The PAN strongly agrees: it rejected both reforms, and its platform proposes opening oil and gas exploration and production to private investment, under regulation it calls “fair and competitive in the market.” The PRI, which also voted against and defends opening the sector, agrees.

Movimiento Ciudadano sits in the middle, neutral, and its split vote reflects that: it rejected the constitutional amendment, supported its laws in general, and its platform wants electricity to rest on the CFE but with private investment and without monopolies. SOMOS is also neutral: its program of action wants the state to exercise its “stewardship” over energy production and distribution, alongside public-private agreements on renewables and competition rules. Partido PAZ (agrees*) does not discuss energy; its position is inferred from its declaration of principles, which defends economic freedoms and criticizes public monopolies.

Fracking: a promise, a study and a bill

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, means pumping water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into low-permeability rock to release gas and oil. Neither the 2024 constitutional amendment nor the 2025 laws mention it: it is not banned by law.

This is the statement on which the context shifted most in 2026. Morena’s 2024 platform pledged to continue “the policy of not using fracking”; in 2026, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government had a study carried out and is weighing pilot tests to extract unconventional gas. That is why Morena’s position is neutral. So is the PT’s: its platform wants natural gas output to grow “very significantly,” yet grants the Earth the right not to suffer human alterations, and it does not mention fracking.

Movimiento Ciudadano is the only party with a documented position against, strongly disagrees: in April 2026, its parliamentary leader, Ivonne Ortega, brought to the Chamber a bill to add to Article 27 of the Constitution that “the extraction of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons by means of hydraulic fracturing is prohibited” (Parliamentary Gazette, 29 April 2026).

The other five positions are estimated, because no other party has spoken on it: the PAN, agrees*, wants more private investment in oil and gas and priority for natural gas in the southeast; the PVEM and SOMOS, disagree*, call in their documents for protecting water and soil; the PRI and Partido PAZ are neutral*.

Nuclear power plants

Mexico has a single nuclear plant, Laguna Verde, in Veracruz. Building more is one of the test’s tie-break questions (they only appear when your result leaves several parties almost tied), and it splits the parties in an unusual way.

The PAN strongly agrees: its 2024 proposals include “two new conventional nuclear reactors,” modernizing Laguna Verde and small modular reactors. At the other end, strongly disagreeing, is the PVEM, Morena’s ally on almost everything else: its program of action backs wind, solar and water power and rules out nuclear power “as dangerous and polluting.”

Morena disagrees: in October 2024 the president stated that Laguna Verde “operates very well,” while ruling out plans to “grow with nuclear”; her government is betting on gas and renewables. The PT, which also disagrees, proposes moving to renewables, without mentioning nuclear power, and wants to recognize the right to live free of “toxic or radioactive waste.” The PRI, Movimiento Ciudadano, SOMOS and Partido PAZ do not mention nuclear power in their documents: all four are neutral*.

Renewables before oil and gas

No party objects here. The test asks whether renewables should come ahead of oil and gas even if they are more expensive at first. The difference lies between those who propose it without conditions and those who combine it with more gas.

Agreeing are the PAN, which proposes a “2030 Roadmap” to decarbonize power generation and gradually retire coal and fuel oil, while also backing natural gas; the PRI, which wants to cut dependence on fossil fuels with solar and wind; the PVEM, which calls for it in its program of action; Movimiento Ciudadano, which proposes a deadline to leave fossil fuels behind, with a planned transition that avoids excessive costs; SOMOS, with subsidies for renewables and “clear and ambitious” targets; and Partido PAZ, with tax incentives for companies that use clean energy.

Morena and the PT are neutral because of the other half of their proposals: for Morena, the energy transition is “one of the priorities,” and so is strengthening Pemex and the CFE, and the government announced it will grow with gas plants as well as renewables; the PT wants to leave behind a “predominantly fossil” energy mix and, at the same time, produce much more gas.

Making polluters pay

Only two statements in the whole test bring all eight parties onto the same side with documented positions, and this is one of them: all agree that whoever pollutes should be taxed in proportion to the harm done. What changes is the tool each one proposes.

Partido PAZ and the PVEM strongly agree. Partido PAZ proposes in its program of action “a progressive scheme of environmental taxes” on the most polluting activities, with the revenue going to climate action. The PVEM proposes Clean Air Certificates, following the rule that “the polluter pays,” and a mandatory carbon exchange.

The other six agree. Movimiento Ciudadano and SOMOS speak explicitly of “green taxes,” and SOMOS adds a national carbon market. The PRI cites the United Nations’ call to put a price on carbon. The PAN wants environmental costs to be reflected in the price of goods. Morena proposes tax charges on single-use plastics, and the PT, pursuing polluters through criminal and administrative channels.

Mining: more concessions or none?

The law already restricts concessions heavily. Since the 2023 reform they are granted by tender and for 30 years, and they are banned in protected natural areas, where the population is at risk and in areas without available water (DOF, 8 May 2023); the Constitution also excludes lithium and radioactive minerals from any concession. The test asks one step further: whether no new mining concessions should be granted at all.

Morena strongly agrees. In 2024 its platform pledged not to grant new licenses for mining operations, as the government of the time was already doing; the exception is lithium, in state hands. The PT, which agrees, wants the state to regain control of the mining surplus and criticizes the “extractivist” model, although it does not discuss concessions.

Movimiento Ciudadano and SOMOS are neutral. The mining bill that Movimiento Ciudadano’s floor leader introduced in April 2026 does not ban concessions nationwide; it adds to the excluded areas those with “irreversible loss of biodiversity and fragile ecosystems.” SOMOS wants to ban “environmental sacrifice zones,” although it accepts using natural resources when that benefits the nation and communities.

The other four positions are estimated: the PAN and the PRI (disagree*) treat mining as an economic activity that should continue, and the PVEM and Partido PAZ (neutral*) do not discuss concessions.

The positions in one table

The sources for each documented position can be checked on each party’s page and on the “Energy and the environment” page.

What the data show

On who owns the energy sector, the topic lines up like the votes: Morena, the PT and the PVEM behind Pemex and the CFE; the PAN and the PRI for opening the sector; Movimiento Ciudadano and SOMOS in between. But the blocs do not hold across the rest of the topic. The PVEM, which voted with Morena on everything, is the party most opposed to nuclear power and, together with Partido PAZ, one of the two that strongly agree with charging polluters. Movimiento Ciudadano, which supported the 2025 laws in general, is the only one with a proposal to ban fracking in the Constitution. And Morena, which promised not to use fracking, is today the party whose government is studying it.

On the environment, agreement is broader than the votes suggest: no one opposes prioritizing renewables or charging polluters. What separates the parties is how much oil and gas they want to keep in the meantime, and who should produce it. All six statements are in the test: five in the full version, one of them also in the quick one, and the nuclear plants statement in the tie-break.