[FEMA plans to spend $9.4 billion on fossil fuel infrastructure
instead.] [[link removed]]

FEMA IGNORES PUERTO RICO'S ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CHANCE TO BUILD A CLEAN
ENERGY GRID  
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Patrick Parenteau, Rachel Stevens
October 13, 2021
The Conversation
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_ FEMA plans to spend $9.4 billion on fossil fuel infrastructure
instead. _

A person waves a flag reading "Fuera Luma" (Luma out) during a
demonstration to mark May Day, or International Workers' Day, in San
Juan, Puerto Rico on May 1, 2021., Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty
Images

 

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION HAS a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help
Puerto Rico transition to a greener and more resilient energy future,
but it's on the verge of making a multibillion-dollar mistake.

Since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, many residents
and environmental advocates have called for new clean energy sources
for the island. Currently Puerto Rico gets more than 97% of its
electricity from imported fossil fuel
[[link removed]]. Power is expensive
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and unreliable
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Puerto Rico adopted laws
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that called for generating 15% of its electricity from renewable
sources by 2020, 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050. But the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, which controls relief funding for
the island, appears ready to underwrite a rebuild of the old fossil
fuel system.

As environmental lawyers
[[link removed]] and
professors of law [[link removed]], we are
surprised to see FEMA move forward on a path that runs directly
counter to the White House's energy and climate policy. President Joe
Biden has called for a governmentwide approach that promotes clean
energy, protects public health and the environment, and advances
environmental justice
[[link removed]].

In our view, FEMA's actions don't support those goals. They also
ignore legal requirements for federal agencies to carefully weigh the
environmental impacts of major actions.

[Power poles lying across a flooded ditch.]
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_Power lines toppled by Hurricane Maria in Alta Vega, Puerto Rico,
Sept. 30, 2017. (Photo: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
[[link removed]]_

Rebuild or replace with a more resilient green system?

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria
[[link removed]] struck Puerto
Rico with sustained winds of 155 mph. It tore a diagonal 100-mile
swath across the island, demolishing tens of thousands of homes and
washing away roads and bridges.

The storm toppled transmission and cell towers, snapped concrete power
poles, battered power plants and plunged the island into darkness. It
killed an estimated 3,000 people
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and caused over US$90 billion in damages
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In response, Congress authorized some $23 billion in disaster aid
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including at least $10 billion to restore or replace Puerto Rico's
electricity grid. It also passed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act
[[link removed]] to
promote a more flexible energy system that could withstand and recover
quickly from climate disruptions.

FEMA, which administers the funds, has allocated $9.4 billion for
rebuilding Puerto Rico's electricity system and will start approving
projects after it receives more details explaining how the work will
be performed [[link removed]]. So far, none of
this money has been earmarked for renewable power, except for a small
sum to repair a hydroelectric dam that provides less than 1% of the
island's power.

The organizations making decisions in Puerto Rico are the
Commonwealth's Electric Power Authority [[link removed]],
known as PREPA, and Luma Energy [[link removed]], a
private company that received a 15-year contract in 2021 to manage
power transmission and distribution on the island. PREPA and Luma have
proposed hundreds of projects
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for the coming decade, but none include federal funding for rooftop
solar, community solar, battery storage or microgrids. Advocates say
that this kind of small-scale local generation would make the island's
electricity cheaper, cleaner and more reliable
[[link removed]].

A 2015 study by the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and
Financial Analysis [[link removed]] found that investing in
solar and wind power and energy efficiency could transform Puerto
Rico's electrical system into a resilient grid
[[link removed]].
And in 2020, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated
that rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico could generate roughly four
times as much electricity as residents currently use
[[link removed]].

Federal law requires weighing the options

Spending almost $10 billion to rewire an island with 3 million
residents is clearly a major federal action with significant
environmental impacts. Under the National Environmental Policy Act,
agencies undertaking such actions must prepare an environmental impact
statement
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that takes a hard look at alternatives and invites meaningful public
input.

PREPA and Luma's proposed plan
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includes reconstructing and hardening nearly all of Puerto Rico's
transmission lines and building at least two new natural gas-fired
power plants. Burning more natural gas will affect air and water
quality
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and contribute to climate change. Natural gas is shipped to Puerto
Rico in liquid form, so using more of it also means expanding import
facilities and pipelines
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Instead of producing a full-scale environmental impact statement, FEMA
produced a superficial programmatic environmental assessment
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narrower study that did not weigh other options. It concluded that
there would be "no significant impact
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from rebuilding Puerto Rico's fossil fuel-based energy system. The
study did not mention climate change, which scientists widely agree is
making hurricanes larger and more destructive
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Beyond a pro forma invitation for public comment, FEMA made no effort
to engage with overburdened communities of color that have
disproportionately suffered from pollution and climate change
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under Puerto Rico's energy system. This directly contradicts Biden's
order to place environmental justice at the center
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of federal energy and climate policy.

The National Environmental Policy Act also requires agencies to
"study, develop and describe appropriate alternatives to recommended
courses of action [[link removed]]."
FEMA's environmental assessment only considers rebuilding and
hardening the existing grid, and does not mention renewable energy.
When some public commenters criticized this omission
[[link removed]],
FEMA responded that it was not responsible for considering alternative
means of generating electricity.

Advancing the public interest

Both PREPA and Luma are proponents of an energy strategy that centers
on importing natural gas
[[link removed]].
Federal law requires FEMA to take a broader approach and ensure that
it spends federal money in ways that support U.S. environmental goals.

Courts have held that environmental justice is not simply a box to be
checked
[[link removed]].
In our view, the law clearly requires FEMA to give Puerto Ricans—who
have lived with a creaky power system for four years—a seat at the
table before it starts writing checks for projects that affect their
lives.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License

Patrick Parenteau
[[link removed]] is a
Professor of Law at Vermont Law School.

Rachel Stevens
[[link removed]] is
Professor of Law & Staff Attorney at Vermont Law School.

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