Congress Oversees Recovery Process From Hurricane María

Press Release

LUMA Energy was unable to answer the questions asked during today's congressional public hearing by the Resident Commissioner, Jenniffer González Colón, regarding when the Puerto Rico electrical system condition will be normalized. For this reason, the congresswoman required the company to respond in writing to the congressional subcommittee specifically what are the plans and projections to complete the reconstruction according to the standards provided by law, the expected timeline for the work and how much is the amount of funds requested and received so far.

"The people deserve to know when we will have an efficient and standardized electrical system. Today I took advantage of the public hearing to ask those specific questions about when the electrical system of Puerto Rico is expected to be completely repaired, because the funds have been allocated for that. Unfortunately, the representation of LUMA at the hearing was unable to answer the question or even give an estimate of dates, if it will be one year, two years, three years, five years, or 10 years, how long will it take for our electrical system to be at full capacity", González Colón states.

The Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the federal House of Representatives, to which Resident Commissioner González Colón, belongs, held a public hearing where they discussed the recovery of the island after five years from the onslaught of Hurricane Maria.

The Resident Commissioner coordinated with the subcommittee a staff visit to Puerto Rico last August as part of the preparations and investigation for today's hearing, a hearing in which González Colón requested that the energy area be included in particular.

The hearing was titled "Recovery Update: Status of FEMA's Recovery Efforts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, 5 Years After Hurricanes Irma and María."

The congresswoman highlighted in her initial message the vicissitudes that the victims of the 2017 hurricanes went through and how, despite the fact that billions in federal funds have been secured, the population continues facing "frequent interruptions in the energy system, with plants going offline, substations on fire, and failing lines. Today with a tropical storm approaching, social networks are full of anxiety over if we are going to be without power for months again… We are here today to hear what went wrong, what went right and how we can do better."

In the first panel of speakers was the Associate Administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); Anne Bink, whom Gonzalez asked to clarify the disbursement of the $9.4 billion for improvements to the power system; the status of disbursement of other funds; what may be hindering or delaying that disbursement, and which local agencies are in charge of the different projects.

On the second panel were Christopher Currie- director of the Office of Homeland Security and Justice of the Government Accountability Office (GAO); Adrienne Williams- Director of the Virgin Islands Disaster Recovery Office; Manuel Laboy- director of the Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3); Shay Bahramirad- Senior Vice President of LUMA Energy; and Josué Colón -Executive Director of the Electric Power Authority (PREPA).

"Both LUMA and FEMA left us with more questions than answers. In both cases core issues remain unanswered, it seems unbelievable that five years after Hurricane Maria we would not have an on how to modernize the power grid. I recognize the performance and genuine commitment of everyone at FEMA who for the past five years have been in Puerto Rico working on reconstruction, however, the level of disbursement of the funds committed by the agency and the pace of start of work after five years does not meet our expectations, so the administration has to take action and restructure processes, cut the bureaucracy and accelerate processes so that the recovery projects, specifically those of the electrical network, can start," said González Colón, who recalled that he has presented legislative measures to allow FEMA to expedite.

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