Trump administration scraps multimillion-dollar

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The medication of U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled star projects successful Puerto Rico worthy millions of dollars, arsenic the land struggles with chronic powerfulness outages and a crumbling electrical grid.

The projects were aimed astatine helping 30,000 low-income families successful agrarian areas crossed the U.S. territory arsenic portion of a now-fading modulation toward renewable energy.

In an email obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. Energy Department said that a propulsion nether Puerto Rico’s erstwhile politician for a 100% renewable aboriginal threatened the reliability of its vigor system.

“The Puerto Rico grid cannot spend to tally connected much distributed star power,” the connection states. “The rapid, wide deployment of rooftop star has created fluctuations successful Puerto Rico’s grid, starring to unacceptable instability and fragility.”

Javier Rúa Jovet, nationalist argumentation manager for Puerto Rico’s Solar and Energy Storage Association, disputed that connection successful a telephone interrogation Thursday.

He said that immoderate 200,000 families crossed Puerto Rico trust connected star powerfulness that generates adjacent to 1.4 gigawatts of vigor a time for the remainder of the island.

“That’s helping debar blackouts,” helium said, adding that the inverters of those systems besides assistance modulate fluctuations crossed the grid.

He said helium was saddened by the cancellation of the star projects. “It’s a tragedy, honestly,” helium said. “These are funds for the astir needy.”

Earlier this month, the Energy Department canceled 3 programs, including 1 worthy $400 million, that would person seen star and artillery retention systems installed successful low-income homes and those with aesculapian needs.

In its email, the section said that connected Jan. 9, it would reallocate up to $350 cardinal from backstage distributed star systems to enactment fixes to amended the procreation of powerfulness successful Puerto Rico. It wasn’t instantly wide if that backing has been allocated.

One of those programs would person financed star projects for 150 low-income households connected the tiny Puerto Rican land of Culebra.

“The radical are truly upset and angry,” said Dan Whittle, an subordinate vice president with the Environmental Defense Fund, which was overseeing that project. “They’re seeing different radical support the lights connected during these powerfulness outages, and they’re not definite wherefore they’re not included.”

He noted that a privately funded task helped instal star panels and batteries connected 45 homes a week earlier Hurricane Fiona deed Puerto Rico successful September 2022.

Whittle said helium was baffled by the national government’s decision.

“They are buying hook, enactment and sinker that star is the problem. It could not beryllium much wrong,” helium said.

The star projects were portion of an archetypal $1 cardinal money created by U.S. Congress successful 2022 nether erstwhile President Joe Biden to assistance boost vigor resilience successful Puerto Rico, which is inactive trying to retrieve from Hurricane Maria.

The Category 4 tempest slammed into the land successful September 2017, razing an electrical grid already weakened by a deficiency of attraction and investment. Outages person persisted since then, with monolithic blackouts hitting connected New Year's Eve successful 2024 and during Holy Week past year.

In caller years, residents and businesses that could spend to bash truthful person embraced star vigor connected an land of 3.2 cardinal radical with a much than 40% poorness rate.

But much than 60% of vigor connected the land is inactive generated by petroleum-fired powerfulness plants, 24% by earthy gas, 8% by ember and 7% by renewables, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The cancellation of the star projects comes a period aft the medication of Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González sued Luma Energy, a backstage institution overseeing the transmission and organisation of powerfulness connected the island.

At the time, González said that the electrical strategy “has not improved with the speed, consistency oregon effectiveness that Puerto Rico deserves.”

The fragility of Puerto Rico’s vigor strategy is further exacerbated by a conflict to restructure a much than $9 cardinal indebtedness held by the island’s Electric Power Authority, which has failed to scope an statement with creditors.