<
https://grist.org/energy/inside-the-governments-push-to-divert-puerto-rico-solar-funds-to-a-bankrupt-utility/>
"When Congress approved a $1 billion Energy Resilience Fund for Puerto Rico in
2022, the money was desperately needed. Multiple hurricanes had battered the
island’s notoriously fragile electric grid, and lawmakers envisioned the money
supporting rooftop solar and battery systems that could provide resilient
backup power during emergencies.
The Biden administration’s Department of Energy developed a plan to distribute
the funds to about 40,000 low-income Puerto Ricans, many of whom live with
health conditions requiring access to reliable power. Biden officials
envisioned a network of solar and battery systems that would keep medically
vulnerable Puerto Ricans safe during storms and reduce reliance on the island’s
unstable grid.
The Trump administration has different ideas.
The plan all but disappeared after President Trump took office last year.
Trump’s DOE has since redirected a large share of the funds to the Puerto Rico
Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, the bankrupt utility that operates the
island’s grid. The money is now poised to shore up PREPA’s fleet of power
plants, which largely run on fossil fuels, and $50 million will fund a new
natural gas pipeline. The administration has defended the decision by arguing
that PREPA’s infrastructure improvements will ultimately benefit a broader
swath of the island’s population.
The process by which Trump’s DOE unilaterally redirected the resilience funds,
seemingly against Congress’ intent, has so far been shrouded in secrecy. But
public records obtained by
Grist under the
Freedom of Information Act shed
new light on how Trump’s political appointees engineered the change. The
documents show that the DOE gave PREPA unusually favorable treatment, in part
by soliciting no competing bids for the funds, fast-tracking the review
process, and using Trump’s executive order announcing an “energy emergency” as
the justification for the award.
Most eyebrow-raising, perhaps, was the way that the DOE waived its typical
requirement that grant recipients pony up substantial funding of their own to
contribute to project costs. Exceptions are sometimes made for indigent
recipients or economically distressed communities, but for large organizations
such as PREPA — which has nearly $4 billion in annual revenue — the agency
typically requires a 50 percent cost share.
In PREPA’s case, the DOE accepted just a 1 percent cost share, noting that the
utility was under “significant financial stress” and that waiving the
cost-share requirement is “necessary in order to provide a more stable
foundation for Puerto Rico to begin to perform long-term energy planning and
repairs.”
Some critics who have worked at the agency in the past are unsatisfied with
this explanation."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
