The Court invalidates municipal hydrocarbon licenses in San Pedro, Coahuila

The Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared Article 38, fraction VI, numerals 1, 2, and 3, of the Revenue Law of the Municipality of San Pedro, Coahuila de Zaragoza, for the 2026 Fiscal Year, unconstitutional for encroaching upon the exclusive competence of the Federation regarding electric energy and hydrocarbons. The ruling of Constitutional Controversy 137/2026, approved by a unanimous vote of nine in the session of July 6, 2026, was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on Wednesday, October 21, 2026 (No. 288/2026), in the Judicial Branch section.

The lawsuit was filed by the Federal Executive Branch, through Esthela Damián Peralta, Legal Counsel to the Federal Executive, via an official letter submitted on February 16, 2026. The project was drafted by the reporting minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, with Guadalupe de la Paz Varela Domínguez and Rodrigo Arturo Cuevas y Medina as secretaries. The challenged norm is part of Decree 372, published on December 26, 2025, in the first section of the state’s Official Gazette, number 103.

The annulled charges

The invalidated provision established an annual charge for the issuance of operating licenses, with a rate of 39,445 pesos per unit in three scenarios:

• Buildings producing thermoelectric, solar thermal, hydroelectric, wind, or photovoltaic energy, wind turbines or similar, for each wind turbine or unit.
• Buildings for the extraction of natural gas, per unit.
• Buildings for the extraction of non-associated gas, per unit.

The Plenary Tribunal concluded that numeral 1 affects infrastructure of the electricity sector, whose planning, control, regulation, and supervision correspond to the Federation, while numerals 2 and 3 fall upon the core of the hydrocarbon industry, a strategic area of federal domain and leadership.

Local licenses with federal effect

The ruling rejects the argument of the Congress of the State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, which maintained that the norm regulated licenses, permits, and environmental control services within the municipal scope of Article 115 of the Constitution. For the Court, even if formally presented as municipal licenses or environmental control services, the taxed concepts materially affect activities and infrastructure subject to federal regulation, authorization, supervision, and verification.

The ruling distinguishes between an ordinary operating license, applicable generally to establishments and works, and an authorization specifically designed for gas extraction or electric power production buildings: the former may be located within the municipal sphere; the latter encroaches upon federal powers. It also warns that allowing each municipality to set specific renewal fees or duties would create a regulatory fragmentation incompatible with the constitutional design of both sectors.

Precedents and scope of the criterion

The criterion is not isolated. The sentence cites jurisprudence P./J. 61/2026 (12a.), published in the Gaceta del Semanario Judicial de la Federación (Twelfth Epoch, Book 9, May 2026, Volume I, Volume 1, page 237, record 2032092), and revisits the controversies resolved on September 17, 2025:

• 101/2025, 121/2025, and 112/2025, regarding the revenue laws of San Juan de Sabinas, Ocampo, and Hidalgo.
• 131/2025, regarding article 32, fraction VI, of the Revenue Law of Parras.
• Matters 45/2024 to 78/2024, regarding construction and remodeling permits for wells.

Voting and effects

The vote was unanimous with nine votes: Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, Irving Espinosa Betanzo, María Estela Ríos González, Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, Lenia Batres Guadarrama, Loretta Ortiz Ahlf, Giovanni Azael Figueroa Mejía —with different considerations on the issue of electric energy—, Arístides Rodrigo Guerrero García, and president Hugo Aguilar Ortiz. Batres Guadarrama announced a concurring vote.

The declaration of invalidity will take effect upon notification of the resolutive points to the Congress of the State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, and must also be notified to the Municipality of San Pedro as the authority responsible for applying the revenue law. The resolution orders its publication in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, the Official Gazette of Coahuila, and the Semanario Judicial de la Federación.

The ruling confirms that city councils cannot turn their operating licenses into a tax on energy activities reserved for the Federation, and leaves the municipalities of Coahuila and the rest of the country with the obligation to review their revenue laws to remove equivalent charges before they are challenged.

Source: Diario Oficial de la Federación, No. 288/2026, October 21, 2026, First Section (Judicial Branch), pp. 52-80 (official reference: Constitutional Controversy 137/2026).