The authorities have an obligation to act to prevent risks to industrial safety, the environment, and people. The regularization program associated with RENAGAS is voluntary and is subject to specific conditions. The inspection actions carried out by ASEA focus on installations that are not registered in RENAGAS or do not have valid environmental authorizations. It is an administrative instrument that allows for ordering information and facilitating regularization processes for operating installations. From this, it is incorrect to state that the existence of this scheme should prevent closures. Its objective is to facilitate compliance, not to replace it or indefinitely defer the application of the law. ASEA acts in accordance with its legal attributions, applying the current regulations and using RENAGAS as an ordering instrument, not as a regulatory exception. For the foregoing, the publication of this reply is requested in accordance with the law. Representatives of the gas and gasoline sector denounced that the Agency for Security, Energy, and Environment (ASEA), led by the newly appointed Andrea González Hernández, has increased verification visits and closures to gas stations and gas outlets in recent weeks, despite the fact that the RENAGAS regularization program contemplated incentives to facilitate the regularization of the sector. The National Register of Gasoline and Liquefied Petroleum Gas Installations (RENAGAS), created during Armando Ocampo's administration and which registered an adherence of over 90%, established as one of its main benefits the avoidance of immediate closure of installations in the process of regularization, except in cases of imminent risk to safety or the environment. However, they accused that “since González's arrival, ASEA, with the support of the Director of Verifications, Rodulfo de la Fuente Pérez, carries out reviews arbitrarily”. The complaint was made anonymously for fear of possible reprisals. They also pointed out that one of the main obstacles to advancing in regularization has been the delay in resolving procedures and permits by the authority itself, which limits the ability of companies to meet the requirements on time. To date, the authority has not publicly informed if there are changes in the supervision criteria applicable to companies registered in the RENAGAS program, nor has it detailed the number of establishments closed in this period. The sector reiterated that it maintains its willingness to comply with current regulations and advance in its regularization process according to the established guidelines. Right of Reply Dear Víctor Piz, Director of Economic Information and Business and Editor-in-Chief of El Financiero Printed Regarding the note published on April 7, 2026, in El Financiero, “Gaseros and gasolineros denounce increase in closures despite RENAGAS regularization scheme”, in which an increase in closures is raised despite the existence of regularization schemes such as RENAGAS, ASEA exercises its right of reply to clarify some points that, in their current wording, may give rise to inaccurate interpretations. RENAGAS is not a mechanism that suspends the application of regulations or limits the authority's ability to carry out inspection acts.
