Welcome to the first official Connect Puerto Rico newsletter.

I’m Jillian Melero, founder and editor of Connect Puerto Rico (CPR). And I want to thank you for supporting us along our prelaunch journey. 

CPR has been under development since Oct. 2023 when we were accepted into the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at The City University of New York.

When we completed the program in Jan. 2024, we started publishing monthly articles on Medium to better understand and explain the many issues involved in Puerto Rico’s ongoing crisis with electricity and infrastructure. — If you haven’t read them yet, I’ve sprinkled a few of them throughout the issue to provide additional context.

In June 2024, we were accepted into the Google News Initiative’s Prelaunch Startup Lab. When we completed the program in August, we launched our website, Connect-PuertoRico.com.

But our origin story really started seven years ago today. 

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico Sept. 20, 2017. A category 4, it was Puerto Rico’s deadliest hurricane, resulting in thousands of lives lost, the longest blackout in U.S. history, and more than $9 billion in damages.

The death toll was initially reported as 64, but later, investigative reporting by el Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) revealed that over 3,000 deaths were linked to the storm, largely due to the prolonged power outages and lack of access to healthcare after the storm. 

This reaffirmed the urgent need to modernize and harden Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure against hurricanes, including transitioning to renewable energy, especially solar and batteries, as well as decentralizing electrical service to make sure natural disasters and other disruptions in one area won’t disable other parts of the grid.

Over the following year, a narrative emerged in the media about rebuilding Puerto Rico into a renewable energy utopia. In 2019, feeling hopeful about the reconstruction, I visited with folks at the University of Puerto Rico to learn more. I spent time with the founders and members of the National Institute of Island Energy and Sustainability, and left with three main takeaways about what was stalling progress with renewables: outdated infrastructure, insufficient workforce, and — for some outside groups coming in to try and do the work — a  lack of local knowledge.

It’s now been seven years since we learned some difficult lessons from Maria. And yet little to no progress has been made in Puerto Rico’s transition to renewable energy or decentralized electricity. 

To the contrary, FEMA and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the government-owned electric power company, are instead investing heavily in fossil fuels when residents have been clear about their desire to see investment in renewables and other solutions.

This is where the work of Connect Puerto Rico begins.

It’s our mission to inform readers about the issues shaping Puerto Rico’s transition to renewable energy. 

But it is our vision to connect community leaders, business investors, policymakers and more to collaborate on solutions that are resilient, sustainable, and equitable. 

Resilient in that they can withstand hurricanes and other natural disasters. Sustainable in that they can withstand economic and other manmade disasters. And equitable in that they benefit Puerto Ricans and strengthen Puerto Rico.

Welcome to Connect Puerto Rico: News to Inform. Community to Empower.

In September, Puerto Rican officials questioned the two private power companies managing the generation (Genera PR) and transmission and distribution (LUMA Energy) of Puerto Rico’s electricity about ongoing power outages. 

The continued outages have led to demands that the government cancel the contracts awarded to LUMA and Genera. 

During the five-hour meeting, both companies reported on what measures they have taken to resolve issues and what their next steps are. They answered questions from Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau (PREB) and others.

The PREB was created in 2014, with the primary intention of regulating PREPA. Before the PREB's creation, PREPA regulated itself and the energy industry without any oversight. The establishment of PREB aimed to address issues like Puerto Rico lagging in renewable energy adoption compared to other jurisdictions.

Existing issues with the electrical infrastructure were further exacerbated after Tropical Storm Ernesto passed by in August, leaving tens of thousands without power and running water for weeks after.

Connect Puerto Rico, August: Puerto Rico Loses Power and Water After Ernesto

Another wave of power outages in Puerto Rico began in June. LUMA Energy reported that overgrown vegetation caused failures in two transmission lines, leaving over 340,000 customers without power. 

Connect Puerto Rico, June: Puerto Ricans Protest LUMA Energy Amid Blackouts and Heatwave

The privatization of Puerto Rico's electricity system has been a contentious issue for years, with debates continuing over how it's affecting service quality, costs, and the future of energy across Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is the government-owned electric power company responsible for electricity generation, distribution, and transmission in Puerto Rico. It was the sole electric utility in the archipelago. 

PREPA filed for bankruptcy in 2017, with over $9 billion in debt. It is still negotiating the debt restructuring process with creditors.

In 2018, the Puerto Rican government announced plans to privatize PREPA's assets. LUMA Energy took over transmission and distribution operations in 2021, and  Genera PR took over PREPA's power generation plants in 2023.

Puerto Ricans will elect a new governor in November. (Reminder, Puerto Ricans can vote in the presidential primaries but not in the general election).

Monday, Sept. 16, Puerto Rico's elections commission rejected a request to extend the voter registration deadline for the upcoming election. This decision comes after reports of long lines, cutoffs at registration centers and concerns about accessibility.

The current deadline for voter registration is Sept. 21. Two smaller parties, the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the Citizen Victory Movement, had requested an extension to one month before the November 5 election. Puerto Rico’s two main parties — the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party — voted against the extension request.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of electronically registered voters have yet to be recorded in the system as chronic power outages have forced temporary closures of registration centers.

There are ongoing debates about Puerto Rico's future status, with options including statehood, independence, and free association. Delegates from Puerto Rico even referred to the territory as “the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the next state of the United States” during the DNC roll call in August.

Puerto Ricans have voted on their political status six times since 1967. In the three most recent votes in 2020, 2017, and 2012, statehood was the most popular option. But Congress still has not taken action to move statehood forward. However, this 2024 vote is the first time that retaining territorial status will not be on the ballot. 

Connect Puerto Rico, July: Puerto Rico is Once Again Asking for a Resolution on its Status

Problems have been plaguing the voting process in Puerto Rico since the primaries in June which saw issues with storms, floods, and landslides cutting off access to voting centers, power outages at the polls, the website of the elections commission crashing, and discrepancies in the results from the voting machines. 

After the primaries, Puerto Rico's elections commission announced it was reviewing its contract with Dominion Voting Systems, a U.S. electronic voting company, after hundreds of discrepancies were discovered. 

Among other reported issues, a software glitch led to miscalculations in vote totals, some machines reported zero votes for certain candidates or reversed vote totals, and more than 1,000 ballots with inaccurate results were documented across different political parties.

The federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances announced Wednesday, Sept. 18 that it will step in to help speed up projects to fix Puerto Rico’s failing power grid.

Of more than $17 billion authorized by the U.S. Congress to help stabilize Puerto Rico’s grid and improve reliability, only $1.2 has been spent in the seven years since hurricane Maria, said Robert Mujica, executive director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMBPR).

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, said the more than $17 billion was not “really available” until mid-2021, and that his administration has been “very creative in dealing with the bureaucratic hurdles” of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the AP reported. Pierluisi said the government has spent 46% of FEMA funds on Maria-related reconstruction projects.

There have been significant bottlenecks in getting federal aid where it needs to go in Puerto Rico with any sense of urgency. 

For example, a federal audit released in February found that of the $23 billion earmarked to help the island recover from the 2017 hurricanes and from earthquakes in 2019 and 2020, only $1.8 billion had been spent. In response, several nonprofit, as well as governmental organizations are working on their own federal funding impact trackers or dashboards to aid transparency and accountability and help address the funding bottleneck.

Connect Puerto Rico, March: Puerto Ricans are protesting these U.S. policies

Outside the meeting, demonstrators protested and circulated a petition with 7,000 signatures, asking the FOMBPR to drop its lawsuit against Puerto Rico over the policies protecting net metering.

In July, the FOMBPR filed a lawsuit against the Puerto Rican government to amend or repeal Act 10, passed in January. Act 10 extends the existing net metering policy in Puerto Rico through 2031. Net metering is a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid. The policy is meant to incentivize solar systems in Puerto Rico, but the FOMBPR claims it undercuts the independence of the island’s energy regulators. 

Before the 2017 storms, Puerto Rico was experiencing a severe economic and financial crisis. This prompted the passage of  the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) and the formation of the FOMBPR in 2016. — Puerto Ricans call it “La Junta.” 

One of the main criticisms of the FOMBPR is its imposition of austerity measures on Puerto Rico. The  issue behind this being that the board is appointed by the U.S. President, rather than elected by Puerto Ricans.

Among its powers and responsibilities the board has authority to approve and enforce fiscal plans for the commonwealth, to supervise Puerto Rico's borrowing, to represent Puerto Rico in Title III cases — similar to federal bankruptcy proceedings, and to require the governor to submit budgets and reports.

The board is made up of seven voting members appointed by the President. The governor of Puerto Rico, or their designee, serves as an ex officio member without voting rights. (This is par for the course when it comes to representation for Puerto Rico at the federal level). Members are appointed for three-year terms and can be reappointed.

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