CFE made the public declaration to counter an article published by local paper El Universal, which said that the company was cancelling the project entirely.
“It is not cancelled. It is delayed,” a CFE spokesperson told BNamericas, adding that the company’s position remains in line with the federal program for energy works and investments (POISE) released earlier in 2009.
CFE admitted that before the work began it must have enough “social consensus” to “have the support of the communities where it will be located,” Spanish news agency EFE reported.
Cemda and communities’ council Cecop have opposed the project on the basis of CFE’s wide generation margin, as well as the claim that it would affect 100,000 people in five municipalities and 36 villages. 25,000 people, in total, will be displaced.
“Yes, it is a cause for celebration, at least for what remains of the federal government’s six-year term. But it also does not mean we can ring the victory bells,” Priscilla Rodriguez, Cemda’s coordinator on the ongoing case challenging the plant’s construction, told BNamericas.
Rodriguez highlighted that CFE first attempted to develop the project in the 1970s but was blocked by local communities.
“Nothing impedes them from implementing it in the future,” she said. “We have to celebrate it, but we have to remain alert,” Rodriguez said.
