…in the dark
The collapse of the grid in 2017 after Hurricane Maria left hundreds of thousands of people without power for months… Since then, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $9.9 billion for permanent projects to repair damage caused by Hurricane Maria.
DB2
And they still haven’t been able to make a go of it? My goodness
Sticks in my mind that some of those contractors awarded contracts were crooks. The funding went to money heaven, with little accomplished for the benefit of the people of PR.
2017:
Still, the decision to forgo an official process concerns experts and set off alarm bells in Washington, especially after the Washington Post reported that the CEO of one of the companies, Whitefish Energy Services, is the neighbor of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in their small hometown of Whitefish, Montana.
Then operation of the PR grid was privatized.
2021:
As with Michigan’s attempt to privatize prison food service, quality of service was not a priority.
2023:
And here we are.
Steve
You can speculate that many tap into the grid without paying electric bills. That could be part of the corruption problem.
They say PR is a corrupt as CA — but that CA can afford all the corruption because they are richer
Why would you speculate that?
Are you suggesting the people of PR are somehow lacking in character that mainland people have?
Oh, I don’t know about that. People who tap into cable TV are well known. (The reason many now have set top boxes.)
In third world countries it is easy to hire someone to tap into a powerline without a meter. And you can see this often by the tangle of wires that results. Not difficult for officials to police this kind of theft, but often employees look the other way.
Revenue shortage makes keeping the system running more difficult.
That is relatively common in Detroit. The local media reports, from time to time, about another power thief getting lit up, trying to make a connection.
Steve
Who says that? What evidence do they have?
It’s a joke in PR, I heard it from family that lives in San Juan.
Ahh, got it.
I’ve become perhaps a bit too sensitive to the “they say” construction, as it seems to be highly correlated to the spread of lies and disinformation.
—Peter
The Government Accounting Office issued a report on the Puerto Rico efforts back in February. They note that less than 8% of the funds have been spend and that with a lot of cost overruns. (It must be that myth of government inefficiency.)
“As of June 2023, FEMA has awarded $23.4 billion in Public Assistance funds for Puerto Rico to recover from the 2017 hurricanes and 2019 and 2020 earthquakes. Of that, it has spent $1.8 billion and a lot of work remains, but increased costs may lead to funding shortfalls for projects.”
DB2
Probably. But Puerto Rico is not a third world country - it’s part of the US.
I don’t mean to imply that theft of electricity is ok. Like it or not Puerto Rico does have some third world characteristics.
And the beat goes on…
The Canadian company, Luma, which operates the Puerto Rican grid jointly with a US company, is looking for explanations.
Luma Energy, Puerto Rico’s electricity distributer, says it has restored power to more than 850,000 customers, or 57.9% of its customer base, as of 2:20 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/g-s1-60823/power-blackout-hits-all-of-puerto-rico-as-residents-prepare-for-easter-weekend
The roar of generators and smell of fumes filled the air as a growing number of Puerto Ricans renewed calls for the government to cancel the contracts with Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, and Genera PR, which oversees power generation. González promised to heed those calls.
DB2