Washington, D.C. – Four senators and nine Democratic representatives claimed the Board of Fiscal Supervision (JSF) modify the fiscal plan and the preliminary agreement with bondholders to restructure the public debt of the Electric Power Authority (PREPA), so that the damage caused by the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico in the generation and economic capacity of the energy system is taken into account.
The blackout caused by earthquakes at the beginning of the month, and damage to the plant South coastThey have once again highlighted the weakness of the island’s electricity grid, Democratic lawmakers said, in a letter to the JSF, which controls the public finances of the Island.
The congressmen indicated in the letter that the recent events should incentivize the PREPA towards the production of energy through renewable sources.
“Puerto Rico residents should not be required to assume the consequences of bad business,” they added, referring to the debt restructuring agreement (RSA), which has yet to be ratified. by Judge Laura Taylor Swain, of the territorial bankruptcy court created by the Promise Law, and the Legislature of Puerto Rico, But experts fear they generate an increase of about 28% in electricity rates.
The letter responds to an initiative of Puerto Rican congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (New York), and is backed by Senate minority leader Charles Schumer and his fellow senators Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Bernie Sanders (Vermont), two of the main candidates of the Democratic presidential candidacy, and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut).
It is also signed by Puerto Ricans Alexandria Ocasio Cortes (New York) and José Serrano (New York), the president of the Natural Resources Committee, Raúl Grijalva (Arizona), and also congressmen Adriano Espaillat (New York), Jesús G. “Chuy “Garcia (Illinois), Susan Wild (Pennsylvania), Carolyn Maloney (New York), and Brendan Boyle (Pennsylvania).
“Since Costa Sur will be out of service for the foreseeable future and that PREPA will have to incur significantly higher costs to replace lost capacity, it is imperative that both the fiscal plan and the RSA (the preliminary debt restructuring agreement) are modified to take into account the destruction caused by the earthquakes, and to prioritize the restoration of critical infrastructure and services at affordable rates instead of the available cash flow being used to make unreasonable and unsustainable debt service payments to the funds Vultures, ”lawmakers added.
They also asked the JSF “to refrain from following a path that perpetuates centralized generation using physical fuel technologies and that requires using scarce financial resources (from PREPA) in a massive natural gas infrastructure.”
“It is not clear why the JSF favors fossil fuel technology over renewable energy options for Puerto Rico. This is certainly not in the best long-term interest of millions of Puerto Ricans, who will pay excessively high electricity rates for at least two generations, ”said Senators and Democratic congressmen.
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