DISASTERSPuerto Rico’s Vulnerability to Hurricanes Is Magnified by Weak Government and Bureaucratic Roadblocks
Hurricane Maria caused extensive damage to Puerto Rico’s power grid in 2017 that left many residents without electricity for months. Rebuilding it has been hampered by technical, political and financial challenges. Now Hurricane Fiona has, again, exposed the sorry state of Puerto power grid.
Five years after Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico, Hurricane Fiona has killed at least four people, caused widespread flooding and left hundreds of thousands of residents without water or power. Maria caused extensive damage to Puerto Rico’s power grid in 2017 that left many residents without electricity for months. Rebuilding it has been hampered by technical, political and financial challenges.
Carlos A. Suárez and Fernando Tormos-Aponte are social scientists who study Latin American politics and environmental justice. They explain some of the factors that have hindered efforts to recover from Maria and prepare for subsequent storms on this island with a population of 3.2 million people.
Failed Promises from Privatization
By Carlos A. Suárez Carrasquillo
In less than a century, Puerto Rico’s electricity system has gone full circle from private provision of electric power to a state-led effort to democratize access to power, and then back to a public-private partnership with a strong neoliberal ethos. Yet Puerto Ricans still face daily challenges in obtaining affordable and efficient electricity services.
When the island’s electric power system was created in the late 1800s, private companies initially produced and sold electricity. During the New Deal era in the 1930s, the government took over this role. People came to see electric power as a patrimonio, or birthright, that the government would provide, at times by subsidizing power for lower-income residents.
In the 1940s, Puerto Rico launched Operation Bootstrap, a rapid industrialization program that sought to attract foreign investments in industries such as textiles and petrochemicals. One important element was reliable and cheap electricity, provided by the state through the Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica, a public corporation known in English as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA.
Many interests coalesced around PREPA, including elected officials, labor unions, the domestic oil importers and, most importantly, the Puerto Rican public. Patronage and party politics often influenced the company’s hiring, contracting and financial decisions.
PREPA took on significant debt, often at the request of elected officials. For example, in 2011, then-Speaker of the House Jennifer González legislated for the company to obtain a line of credit from the Banco Gubernamental de Fomento in order to reduce power bills ahead of the 2012 elections.
Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board imposed austerity policies in 2012-2017 that subsequent governors have kept in place. This left PREPA with limited resources to prepare for Hurricane Maria or make repairs afterward.
