Kissimmee, Florida – Governor Pedro Pierluisi ruled out that the Joe Biden administration’s effort to speed up the reconstruction of Puerto Rico’s power grid would imply new controls over the process on the island.

“(She said) that is not the intention,” the governor said in an interview with El Nuevo Día, after a Democratic political event in Kissimmee.

For Pierluisi, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s plan regarding the task entrusted President Biden entrusted her is to “expand the team overseeing the PuertoRico100″ initiative, which seeks to create an energy system fully based on renewable sources.

During his October 3 visit to Puerto Rico, President Biden asked Secretary Granholm to create a federal team to accelerate the reconstruction of the power grid, which has been moving slowly, despite the $11.4 billion in reconstruction funds.

“The secretary wants to accelerate (the process) and make sure that we make the most of all the federal funds we have available. And I welcome that,” Pierluisi said.

For the governor, there are no initiatives on the table seeking more control over the process, not even over Puerto Rico government offices such as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).

“I know that is not the case. We don’t want another level of bureaucratic approval for anything we are doing ( regarding) the reconstruction. That’s not the intention…adding bureaucracy is not positive. We already have to comply with so many requirements that the important thing is that the federal government has a holistic view of all these programs that we have available, but not changing the compliance requirements that are already in place,” Pierluisi said.

Granholm and Pierluisi will be speakers this Wednesday at the Solar Energy and Storage Association (SESA) summit to be held in San Juan on November 1-3. Pierluisi said he will also have a meeting with Secretary Granholm.

Before arriving in Puerto Rico last October 20, for meetings on the PR100 plan and the new task President Biden entrusted her, Secretary Granholm said that five years after Hurricane María and despite the billions of dollars for reconstruction, “there are still fundamental and critical faults in the island’s electrical system that threaten its reliability.”

Granholm added then that the modernization of the power grid must be accelerated to do the right thing for the Puerto Rican people.

According to Granholm, the federal team to accelerate the reconstruction of the power grid will be led by her department, FEMA, HUD, and the Department of Commerce, and will seek coordinate technical assistance and expedite access to federal funds. FEMA and HUD were already part of the PR-100 plan, which includes a memorandum of understanding between federal offices and Governor Pierluisi.

On October 20, the Energy Secretary met with the island’s advisory group for that plan, which includes 56 non-governmental organizations.

Biden announced this new federal team amid the response to the Hurricane Fiona emergency, which caused another general outage and fueled criticism about the slow reconstruction process.

Pierluisi said that in addition to expanding the PR-100 team, Secretary Granholm will seek to “coordinate everything related to energy on behalf of the federal government.”

“Cohesion is important, that there is one vision to use all the federal programs we have available… For me, that is Jennifer Granholm’s main role, in addition to advising me and the government of Puerto Rico in the transformation process,” he added.

A group of 18 senators and representatives – led by Senate Democratic Majority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Puerto Rican Representative Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.) – asked President Biden to create a federal task force to accelerate and coordinate the entire reconstruction process, not just the modernization of the power grid.

Schumer and Velázquez’s proposal adopts a recommendation made – before Biden visited the island – by the Center for a New Economy (CNE).

On the other hand, La Fortaleza indicated that the Public Safety Secretary signed a memorandum of understanding with Osceola County Police Sheriff Marcos López, a Puerto Rican, for the exchange of intelligence.

According to La Fortaleza, Pierluisi also met with Puerto Rican business owners and elected officials in the city of Orlando, including Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, “to explore alternatives to expand opportunities for collaboration between Puerto Rico and Orlando”.

Fuente: El Nuevo Día

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