Energy transport bill changes drop proposed reforms to Guatemala’s Conap law

Guatemala’s Energy and Mines Committee is moving ahead with changes to a bill designed to make electricity transmission infrastructure easier to build, but proposed reforms to the country’s Conap law have been removed.

Lawmakers reviewed comments from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the National Electrification Institute, the National Council of Protected Areas, and the National Electric Energy Commission. Julio Héctor Estrada, the bill’s sponsor, said the committee had reached agreement on several observations concerning the protection of natural areas.

Conap indicated that some concerns could be addressed through internal procedures, allowing authorities to speed up permits and other administrative steps. Estrada said Bill 6665 would no longer modify the Conap law. For the National Forest Institute, he said the proposal would regulate procedures or establish specific rules for electrical infrastructure so forest protection would not block tower construction and the resulting footprint would remain as small as possible.

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Very innovative

The committee is considering roughly 10 possible amendments, along with the potential removal of two articles. It is also reviewing proposals related to infrastructure maintenance. Estrada said the initiative would not change current protected-area legislation. Transmission projects, he explained, would not pass through core zones, but through buffer areas. Protection agencies have proposed adding staff and speeding up reviews when projects need to cross those areas.

The bill would also provide stronger guarantees for rights-of-way, environmental and municipal licenses, and procedures with Conap, potentially through a one-stop window. Estrada said the committee had converged on a proposal reflecting many of the institutions’ comments, and that lawmakers now needed to explain that the bill would not create entirely new processes, but make existing ones faster and provide more guarantees for private property owners.

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We have largely converged on a proposal that reflects many of the comments, and now we need to inform and explain that this law is not doing anything that does not already exist, but perhaps making it more agile and providing more guarantees for private property owners.