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hurricane maria
Protecting Puerto Rico’s Solar Future
Defending Law 10 is crucial for Puerto Rico’s energy independence and resilience.
Aug 12, 2024
Access to affordable, reliable energy is a fundamental right. It’s disheartening to see the Financial Oversight and Management Board oppose Law 10, which safeguards net metering and thus ensures that solar customers receive fair credit for the electricity they generate but do not use.
Law 10—passed earlier this year—extends Puerto Rico’s net metering program through 2031, thereby providing stability for homeowners and businesses who have invested in solar energy. By challenging Law 10, the FOMB risks disrupting this compensation system, which could drastically slow the growth of solar energy in Puerto Rico. This would be a setback not just for solar panel owners, but for everyone on the island who benefits from cleaner, more affordable energy.
Here’s how solar energy works: Homeowners with solar panels often produce more electricity than they consume. This surplus energy flows back into the grid, benefiting their neighbors. Net metering is a billing arrangement that ensures these homeowners receive fair credit for their excess electricity at the current rate. This credit system benefits all electricity users, even those who haven’t installed solar panels.
If the FOMB’s attack on Law 10 is successful, it could jeopardize net metering, leaving us stuck with an expensive, unreliable system that benefits outside interests at the expense of Puerto Rican families.
Increasing the amount of local solar energy in our electrical grid will lower costs for everyone and enhance the island’s energy independence. Currently, 94% of Puerto Rico’s electricity comes from expensive fossil fuels like oil, diesel, coal, and gas. This reliance means that 71% of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) budget is spent on importing these fuels.
In contrast, solar energy relies on abundant, free sunlight. It’s irrational to depend on costly foreign fuels when we have ample solar resources and the technology to store solar power. Additionally, our local workforce is ready to install these systems and reinvest the savings into our communities rather than sending money off the island.
Rooftop solar systems make our grid more reliable by reducing blackouts and producing energy exactly where it’s needed. Solar power is generated close to the point of consumption, which is especially important when the island’s power plants are struggling to meet demand. These systems are more reliable because they depend less on fragile transmission infrastructure and imported fuels.
According to a study by Gabel Associates, the social and direct benefits to the grid, and all customers, are four times greater than the value earned by solar energy owners through net metering. Solar power does more than provide affordable energy; it offers peace of mind and essential support to vulnerable communities.
This past May, I attended the opening of a solar resilience center at the Nuestra Señora del Carmen church in Cataño. This church supports many low-income families, providing meals, medicine, and shelter to the homeless. It relies on solar-charged batteries to maintain power during outages, cutting utility costs through net metering credits. These savings are used to further support the community.
Solar United Neighbors, the organization I represent, helped support this church’s solar project. With its solar and battery storage system, the church can maintain power even during grid outages. This is crucial for many, especially those who depend on electricity for medical equipment.
If the FOMB’s challenge to Law 10—which ensures fair net metering compensation—succeeds, then projects like this would face more obstacles. Individuals and organizations would also be hindered from recovering their investments in solar power and storage batteries while facing rising energy costs. It would also devastate the more than 10,000 Puerto Ricans who work in the solar industry. Similar changes in California led to a 22% reduction in the state’s solar workforce.
LUMA Energy, the company managing Puerto Rico’s electricity grid, has warned of upcoming energy bill increases, even as blackouts continue to plague the island. The current system is expensive, unreliable, and flawed. By undermining Law 10, the FOMB is attacking one of the few effective solutions that helps fix our broken system and creates economic opportunities for Puerto Ricans. This potential outcome is deeply troubling.
Hurricane Maria devastated our electrical grid, and we are now rebuilding a system that is resilient, affordable, and locally powered. Rooftop solar energy systems create jobs and ensure energy independence for all Puerto Ricans. If the FOMB’s attack on Law 10 is successful, it could jeopardize net metering, leaving us stuck with an expensive, unreliable system that benefits outside interests at the expense of Puerto Rican families.
Defending Law 10 is crucial not just for current solar users but also for the future of Puerto Rico’s energy independence. We urge Puerto Rico’s legislators to unite and defend the benefits of solar energy for everyone.
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Puerto Rican Towns File RICO Suit Accusing Big Oil of Colluding on Climate Denial
Sixteen municipalities are trying to force Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and others to pay for damages from the 2017 hurricane season, which was exacerbated by planet-heating fossil fuel emissions.
Nov 29, 2022
A group of 16 Puerto Rican municipalities has sued Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and other fossil fuel giants for alleged violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court and described by plaintiffs as a first-of-its-kind RICO case, accuses Big Oil of colluding to deny the climate-wrecking impacts of their fossil fuel products.
As Reutersreported Tuesday:
The towns say the companies coordinated a multibillion-dollar "fraudulent marketing scheme" to convince consumers that fossil fuel products do not alter the climate. That campaign ran contrary to the companies' own studies showing their products accelerate climate change, resulting in more deadly storms, the lawsuit said.
The municipalities said the companies outlined a plan of deception in a joint memo that took aim at international climate negotiations in the 1990s. The coordinated deception spanning decades violates U.S. racketeering and antitrust laws among others, the suit claims.
The towns argue that roughly a dozen oil, gas, and coal corporations and other actors are financially responsible for and should pay to cover the damages suffered during the catastrophic 2017 hurricane season, which was intensified by planet-heating pollution.
"The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, featuring six major hurricanes and more than a dozen named storms, caused at least $294 billion worth of damages in the U.S. territory," Reuters reported, citing the lawsuit. "Hurricanes Irma and Maria contributed to an estimated 4,600 deaths and the failure of critical infrastructure in Puerto Rico, the municipalities said."
Marc Grossman, a partner at one of the firms representing the municipalities, called Puerto Rico "the ultimate victim of global warming."
The class action complaint comes just weeks after Puerto Ricans were once again left in the dark for a prolonged period of time after Hurricane Fiona overwhelmed the island's privatized electric grid, sparking protests in several communities as well as a hearing led by local lawmakers.
Fiona made landfall five years after the much stronger Maria triggered an islandwide blackout. In the wake of the 2017 disaster, the island's grid was entirely privatized by LUMA Energy, a joint venture owned by Canadian firm ATCO Ltd. and U.S. contractor Quanta Services Inc.
The United States paved the way for LUMA Energy's corporate takeover of Puerto Rico's grid, and Washington's ongoing domination of the island, which began more than 120 years ago, makes it more vulnerable to the devastating effects of hurricanes such as Maria and Fiona.
In a Jacobin essay published last month, Joe Wilkins wrote:
The commonwealth lost its ability to meaningfully influence structural decisions with a 2016 Barack Obama-era law called the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, known as PROMESA or La Junta.
This act allowed the U.S. Congress to infringe on the island's pecuniary autonomy through the appointment of a Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB). Since its formation, the FOMB has enacted severe austerity measures on public services in order to help Puerto Rico "achieve fiscal responsibility and ultimately reestablish access to credit markets," according to the text of the legislation. La Junta also gives the FOMB authority to deny unionized utility workers their right to strike.
The FOMB's independence from Puerto Rican lawmakers meant that it could clear the way for Puerto Rico's public electrical company, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), to sell commonwealth assets and outsource services related to the generation and transfer of electricity. In 2018, legislation was passed to enable the placement of Puerto Rico's energy grid under private management. That 2018 act revealed La Junta's true purpose: raising the bridge to make way for muck-dredging capitalists who have long lusted after utility contracts in the Global South. From then on it was inevitable that PREPA would seek a public-private partnership in order to improve the public grid. That's where LUMA came in.
The American Prospect's Ryan Cooper argued recently that "there are many proximate factors behind Puerto Rico's continued vulnerability to hurricanes and economic dysfunction. But the root problem is political inequality."
"It is an American colony: controlled by the United States government, but without any political representation for the people living there," wrote Cooper. "Until this inequality is rectified, it's a safe bet that Puerto Rico will never fully recover."
Dozens of states and cities around the U.S. have sued fossil fuel corporations in a bid to make highly deceptive polluters pay for climate change-related damages and adaptation costs, mostly in state court.
Oil and gas giants have tried repeatedly to shift jurisdiction over climate liability lawsuits from state courts to federal court, where they think they will be more likely to avoid accountability.
While federal appeals courts have rejected such attempts on multiple occasions this year, the right-wing-dominated Supreme Court is considering taking up an industry-led challenge to a February ruling with far-reaching implications.
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Fury Over Privatized Grid Grows as Tens of Thousands Still Without Power in Puerto Rico
Until the U.S. island's colonial status "is rectified," wrote one observer, "it's a safe bet that Puerto Rico will never fully recover."
Oct 06, 2022
Frustration with Puerto Rico's privatized electric grid is mounting, as roughly 82,000 people on the island of 3.2 million still lacked power on Thursday, more than two weeks after Hurricane Fiona plunged the whole U.S. territory into the dark.
"We are going to be here, every day, until the town of Ponce has electricity."
Fiona rammed into Puerto Rico on September 18, five years after the much stronger Hurricane Maria triggered an islandwide blackout. In the wake of the 2017 disaster, the island's grid was completely privatized by LUMA Energy, a joint venture owned by Canadian firm ATCO Ltd. and U.S. contractor Quanta Services Inc.
In a hearing convened by the Puerto Rico House of Representatives on Wednesday, local lawmakers asked LUMA Energy president Wayne Stensby and other corporate officials to explain why entire neighborhoods in dozens of towns and cities remain completely in the dark and others are experiencing unreliable access to power.
Company officials have hyped their efforts to restore electricity to approximately 95% of customers in the weeks since Fiona hammered the island with 85-mile-per-hour winds and more than 30 inches of rain. During the hearing, Stensby described LUMA Energy's response to the Category One storm as "unprecedented."
But local Rep. Rafael Hernandez Montanez of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) was unimpressed, responding: "This is not historic. This is business as usual in a Caribbean nation."
Residents of many of the communities that are still without power, including some mayors, have hit the streets in recent days to call out LUMA Energy's failure to quickly mend Puerto Rico's grid and its inability to improve the fragile system before the storm.
Ponce Mayor Luis Irizarry Pabon, also a PPD member, and dozens of residents demonstrated outside a local LUMA Energy office on Wednesday, "demanding that the company restore power to 70 communities that still don't have electricity," NBC News reported.
"We are going to be here, every day, until the town of Ponce has electricity," Irizarry Pabon wrote on social media. Saying that he has "run out of patience," the mayor called for another protest to be held Thursday evening.
"Irizarry Pabon was also joined by Villalba Mayor Luis Javier Hernandez [PPD], who is one of several mayors who created their own brigades of workers and experts to bring fallen light posts and cables back up to where they belong," NBC News noted. "The idea was to help LUMA Energy rebuild as much as possible so it could focus just on re-energizing the system."
Hernandez slammed the company for only tracking power restoration at the regional scale, which means that several municipalities are grouped together, resulting in the absence of finely grained neighborhood-level data--information that island lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing gave Stensby three days to provide.
LUMA Energy "should disclose which sectors in each municipality have not had [power] for 17 days," Hernandez tweeted. "If 95% of the country has power, then we should see most of [the company's] brigades working on the [remaining] 5%. I have not seen them!"
According to NBC News:
There had also been protests Monday, when residents of San German joined a demonstration outside one of LUMA Energy's municipal offices to demand that the company restore service to the town, where roughly 65% of power customers still don't have electricity, Mayor Virgilio Olivera said.
The mayors of Hormigueros, Sabana Grande, and Guanica, all of which remain mostly in the dark, as well, also joined the demonstration Monday.
Meanwhile, Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velazquez of the PPD has urged his constituents to gather outside the town's LUMA Energy office on Friday.
"Let's protest. If you don't have electricity, I invite you to join us. If you have services, join us," Ortiz wrote on Facebook. "There are many elderly and sick people who suffer."
Last week, members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a sternly worded letter to Stensby.
"There are many proximate factors behind Puerto Rico's continued vulnerability to hurricanes and economic dysfunction. But the root problem is political inequality."
"Ongoing outages and the complete disruption of power following Hurricane Fiona amplify concerns that LUMA has failed to adequately develop and maintain crucial electrical infrastructure in Puerto Rico despite its lucrative 15-year contract," wrote Committee Chair Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Energy Subcommittee Chair Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-Colo.).
"Our concerns about LUMA predate the current blackout," says the letter. "Since LUMA assumed control of the grid in 2021, Puerto Ricans have reported recurring power surges that have interfered with critical medical care, disrupted access to education, and destroyed property. In exchange for this inadequate service, Puerto Ricans spend an increasingly disproportionate share of their income on electricity: The average citizen in mainland United States spends 2.4% of their income on electricity whereas Puerto Ricans spend 8% of theirs."
"There was never a doubt that rebuilding infrastructure following Hurricane Maria would be a challenge, but LUMA has been richly compensated to meet that challenge," the letter continues. "Yet, results are not being delivered to Puerto Ricans, who deserve reliable and affordable energy. The collapse of the electric grid in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona is just the latest example of such failures."
The trio of House Democrats gave Stensby until October 11 to provide "information regarding how LUMA is allocating its contract money and why the company had not adequately prepared the island's energy infrastructure to withstand a Category One hurricane."
However, the letter neglects to mention how Washington paved the way for LUMA Energy's corporate takeover of Puerto Rico's grid and how the United States' ongoing domination of the island, which began more than 120 years ago, makes it more vulnerable to the devastating effects of catastrophes such as Maria and Fiona.
In a Jacobin essay published Thursday, Joe Wilkins wrote:
The commonwealth lost its ability to meaningfully influence structural decisions with a 2016 Barack Obama-era law called the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, known as PROMESA or La Junta. This act allowed the U.S. Congress to infringe on the island's pecuniary autonomy through the appointment of a Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB). Since its formation, the FOMB has enacted severe austerity measures on public services in order to help Puerto Rico "achieve fiscal responsibility and ultimately reestablish access to credit markets," according to the text of the legislation. La Junta also gives the FOMB authority to deny unionized utility workers their right to strike.
The FOMB's independence from Puerto Rican lawmakers meant that it could clear the way for Puerto Rico's public electrical company, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), to sell commonwealth assets and outsource services related to the generation and transfer of electricity. In 2018, legislation was passed to enable the placement of Puerto Rico's energy grid under private management. That 2018 act revealed La Junta's true purpose: raising the bridge to make way for muck-dredging capitalists who have long lusted after utility contracts in the Global South. From then on it was inevitable that PREPA would seek a public-private partnership in order to improve the public grid. That's where LUMA came in.
Late last month, The American Prospect's Ryan Cooper argued that "there are many proximate factors behind Puerto Rico's continued vulnerability to hurricanes and economic dysfunction. But the root problem is political inequality."
"It is an American colony: controlled by the United States government, but without any political representation for the people living there," wrote Cooper. "Until this inequality is rectified, it's a safe bet that Puerto Rico will never fully recover."
"The situation in Puerto Rico," he added, "is crying out for a fundamental restructuring of its relationship with the mainland."
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