On November 5, 2026, Belize’s upper legislative chamber formally greenlit a bipartisan seven-member Special Select Committee tasked with launching a sweeping, 16-month review of the nation’s embattled energy sector, following repeated warnings from national utility provider Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) that widespread power shortages and supply disruptions will not abate and are projected to stretch well into 2027. The cross-party committee’s wide-ranging mandate covers a full audit of systemic failures that have plagued Belize’s power grid over the past 10 years, spanning opaque power purchase agreements, volatile international fuel supply contracts, long-term electricity import arrangements with Mexico’s state-run utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), unvetted emergency procurement processes during past grid emergencies, and alleged regulatory gaps in the oversight functions of the Public Utilities Commission, the country’s primary energy watchdog. Beyond regulatory and contractual reviews, the panel is authorized to subpoena confidential government and corporate documents, summon current and former public officials, energy executives and industry stakeholders to testify under oath, and retain independent international energy technical specialists to conduct third-party audits of sector financial records, outdated technical performance reports, and decades of unimplemented national energy policy frameworks. In a landmark transparency measure, all committee public hearings will be broadcast live across national broadcast and digital platforms to ensure full public access to proceedings. The legislative motion that established the panel mandates that all public testimonies and fact-finding activities be concluded no later than March 31, 2027, after which the committee will compile a full, unredacted public report that traces problematic decisions and policy missteps across multiple successive national administrations, with the explicit goal of identifying actionable, evidence-based reforms to end Belize’s prolonged energy crisis and build a more resilient, affordable power grid for residential and commercial users.