Dear John,

Sign the petition: Cancel the LUMA contract that has left Puerto Ricans without power over and over again!

When Hurricanes Maria and Irma hit Puerto Rico, families were displaced, abandoned, and left without power and water. Thousands died because the people in power neglected them.

In the following years, the Trump Administration and U.S. fiscal control board pressured the Puerto Rican government to privatize the island’s energy grid to LUMA Energy. Since then, LUMA Energy has failed the people of Puerto Rico almost every single day, forcing families to experience power blackout after power blackout on top of numerous rate hikes.¹ It’s unconscionable that LUMA failed to provide basic service AND STILL raised their rates seven times in one year.

After Hurricane Fiona recently landed in Puerto Rico, the privatized system completely collapsed, leaving 100% of the island–including hospitals–with no power, and left thousands without access to water.²

This is absolutely unacceptable. Governor Pierluisi can and MUST cancel the LUMA contract before November 30!

If the contract isn’t canceled by November 30th, LUMA will be locked in for 15 years.³ Tell decision makers they need to cancel the contract and support Puerto Ricans over private energy interests.

Sign now

Governor Pedro Pierluisi, we echo the call by the people being harmed by this bad contract and incompetent service provider. Make the right choice and cancel this contract before Nov. 30th, or the people of Puerto Rico will be stuck with LUMA for 15 years.

The federal government should also take immediate action to finish the steps that should’ve been taken after Hurricane Maria. It should be required that federal funding to rebuild the electricity grid be used only for clean, renewable energy projects, rather than polluting fossil fuels. FEMA should reprogram the tens of billions already available in disaster funding to municipalities and NGOs to properly serve the people of Puerto Rico.

To President Biden and Congress, we demand a sustainable and renewable energy grid for Puerto Rico that is reliable—with and without hurricanes.

Together, we can support the people harmed by Trump’s forced privatization of Puerto Rico’s energy grid, but leaders must act now before the November 30th deadline. Demand that they act before it’s too late.

Thanks for all you do,

— MoveOn

P.S. It’s going to take all of us to come together and defeat MAGA in 2022. Sign up today to join millions of MoveOn members organizing to turn out voters in key battleground states.

P.P.S. In addition to turning out swing state voters, we can win by talking to our friends and family about everything that’s at stake in this election. Can we count on you to remind 3 friends to vote?

Sources:

1. “‘Hurricane Maria Never Finished Leaving Us’: The Aftermath of Fiona in a Puerto Rican Town,” The New Yorker, September 27, 2022. https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/hurricane-maria-never-finished-leaving-us-the-aftermath-of-fiona-in-a-puerto-rican-town

2. “More than 1M still without power in Puerto Rico as island assesses damage from Hurricane Fiona,” Utility Dive, September 21, 2022. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/puerto-rico-hurricane-fiona-power-outage-luma-prepa-fema/632317/

3. “Puerto Rico Re-Examines Plan to Fix Power Grid as Fiona Cuts Electricity,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-rico-re-examines-plan-to-fix-power-grid-as-fiona-cuts-electricity-11663621751

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