Infrastructure collapse: A pedestrian during a blackout on New Year’s Eve in Guayama, Puerto Rico. Nearly all of Puerto Rico was without power Tuesday after the fragile electricity grid collapsed. — Bloomberg
San Juan (Puerto Rico): When Jenniffer Gonzalez takes over as Puerto Rico governor today she will have to navigate one of the biggest energy messes in the US. Her solution: Embrace fossil fuels.
Gonzalez, 48, is proposing the US commonwealth drop some of its clean-energy targets in favour of using more liquefied natural gas.
A local law that requires Puerto Rico to have 100% renewable energy by 2050, among other commitments, is not only unrealistic but damaging economic activity, she said in an interview.
“We cannot continue to lose companies because of lack of energy, and none of them can work 24/7 in different shifts with just solar energy,” Gonzalez said.
“I believe that we should diversify our energy basket.”
Energy is a crucial issue in Puerto Rico, where a derelict grid devastated by natural disasters and mismanagement leads to frequent blackouts and expensive electricity.
Gonzalez said the situation is so bad that risks the island’s pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturing sectors, which represent almost half the economy.
Gonzalez vowed to scrutinise the deals that put the Puerto Rico grid under private management but failed to curb blackouts.
On the campaign trail, she threatened to revoke the contract of Luma Energy, a US-Canadian consortium that has been running the island’s transmission network since 2021.
Now, depending on what a committee she put together concludes, Gonzalez said she might bring in another private operator to replace Luma, or split the contract among several different companies.
“My impression,” she said, “is Luma did a contract with the island without the resources to fulfil that contract.”
Only 7% of Puerto Rico’s power comes from renewable sources despite 2019 legislation that set ambitious targets for clean energy adoption, including 40% use by 2025.
At the time, lawmakers expected to use federal resources to rebuild the island’s grid to prioritise renewables, in particular solar.
Gonzalez said the targets are getting in the way of other, cheaper, forms of energy and have slowed the use of some US$17bil in federal aid.
“I’m willing to revise whatever legislation is available to secure power that dramatically reduces the outages we are suffering,” she said.
Gonzalez’s proposals underscore a broader pushback against clean energy.
President-elect Donald Trump promised to prioritise fossil fuel extraction and put an end the “green new scam” of renewable-energy policies set by his predecessor.
Other US utilities have been scaling back their carbon-reduction goals and delaying the retirement of coal plants.
While pushing for more natural gas, Gonzalez said she favours allowing individual solar customers to sell power back to the grid.
The policy, called net-metering, has led to a boom in rooftop solar installations in Puerto Rico but it’s being challenged in court by the federal oversight board who runs the island’s finances.
“I am very much in favour of net-metering,” she said. “If you take away the only incentive people have, then nobody’s going to invest in solar energy.” — Bloomberg
