“It has been seven years since Hurricanes Irma and Maria, yet Puerto Ricans continue to suffer major power outage incidents with no clear end in sight.”
–Harriet Hageman (R-WY)
On September 27, the United States House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on the present and future status of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid. This hearing comes as Puerto Rico’s current privatized power systems, such as LUMA Energy and Genera, have drawn public scrutiny for what some believe is the mishandling of Puerto Rico’s energy crisis. The goal of these private companies has been to work with federal agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to rebuild Puerto Rico’s poor electrical infrastructure. Despite this, many in the territory still face frequent outages and increased energy costs. While LUMA and Genera executives, along with Puerto Rican officials, testified at the hearing, DOE, FEMA, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development sent no representatives on their behalf. On the issue of Puerto Rico’s energy crisis, Resident Commissioner Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon (NPP, R) of Puerto Rico said, “The continuing instability of the electrical grid is a roadblock to our economic development, and it is a threat to the public safety, to the mental and physical health of my constituents.”
Sources of reliable and cost-efficient energy resources for Puerto Rico’s energy grid were the most contentious among the central topics discussed. According to Representative Harriet Hageman (R) of Wyoming, “Troublingly, the Biden-Harris administration has pushed an energy agenda on the island focused on building unreliable energy resources, such as wind and solar, while ignoring the need for reliable and affordable base load energy sources to meet the island’s basic needs.” This point was later refuted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) of New York, who put forth reporting from the Washington Post outlining the effectiveness of solar panels against severe weather.
Representatives from both political parties agreed that government organizations like FEMA and private organizations like LUMA and Genera needed to do more to actively address the needs of Puerto Rican citizens. In a statement discussing FEMA’s efforts to clear right-of-ways in Puerto Rico, Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R) of Arkansas decried FEMA’s excessive prices, saying, “Five or six times the cost to do something, just because we get one of these federal agencies involved. Something has got to change… the bureaucracy and the waste of money has got to stop.”
Various speakers highlighted the need to remove the needlessly complex boundary that prevents federal agencies from doing tangible work that helps Puerto Ricans improve their electrical grid. Manuel A.J. Laboy Rivera, Puerto Rico’s representative for the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction, and Resiliency, echoed these sentiments, saying, “We urge Congress to take a deeper view and consider statutory and regulatory changes to remove unnecessary red tape at the federal level…that will expedite the review and approval process.”
Although the need for more effective aid from federal agencies was discussed, the private organizations LUMA and Genera were also questioned regarding their work in Puerto Rico. When asked about the presence of electrical grid issues today, LUMA Energy CEO Juan Saca cited the extensive damage done by hurricanes before the LUMA takeover, such as Maria and Irma, which caused one of the largest blackouts in US history. Saca also spoke on the infrastructure of PREPA as a significant roadblock to his company’s ongoing work. Saca said, “Even before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s electric grid was well below utility reliability standards…was also allowed to deteriorate due to financial mismanagement, eventually resulting in a 10-billion-dollar bankruptcy in 2017, which today remains unresolved in arbitration.” After PREPA’s bankruptcy came as a result of an expensive default 7 years ago, LUMA was hired to implement change on the ground in the form of restructuring Puerto Rico’s energy grid. Yet this restructuring has dealt with harsh criticism from elected officials within the territory itself.
As the hearing moved on to finding solutions to Puerto Rico’s energy crisis, Genera CEO Brannen McElmurray expressed a need to install 560 megawatts of temporary generation to prevent electrical load losses that could damage Puerto Rico’s electrical grid. LUMA CEO Juan Saca stated that they would need at least one year to gain the regulatory approval of federal organizations, even to begin clearing hazardous vegetation that causes power outages, one of LUMA’s main priorities. In response, Representative Ritchie Torres (D) of NY remarked, “The fact that we are allowing red tape to be prioritized over the energy needs of the people on the island is an absurdity.”
The problem of Puerto Rico’s poor electrical grid is and will remain a national emergency, as residents are subjected to frequent outages and are being placed in harm’s way due to the frail status of energy infrastructure within the territory. Torres stated, “The people of Puerto Rico have been deprived of affordable and reliable energy to an extent, on a scale, and at a length that would be tolerated nowhere else in the United States.”
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