U.S : President BIDEN must address PUERTO RICO's power grid failures.

 

 

Friend, on the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Fiona engulfed Puerto Rico, causing mass floods and - as residents expected - cutting power to the island.  Sign if you agree: President Biden must address Puerto Rico's power grid failures.        SIGN THE PETITION                       Power outages aren’t a new occurrence to Puerto Ricans before or after Hurricane Maria or Fiona. For decades, Puerto Rico has been plagued by a failing power grid that was mismanaged, lacked proper maintenance, and had failing infrastructure. In response to Maria, Congress earmarked $10 billion through FEMA to rebuild Puerto Rico’s devastated power grid. Those projects were contracted out to the private Canadian-American consortium LUMA Energy for overseas transmission and distribution.     Sign if you agree: President Biden must address Puerto Rico's power grid failures.          SIGN THE PETITION       Under LUMA, Puerto Ricans have seen the situation worsen, with blackouts and brownouts occurring more frequently and for prolonged periods of time, short-circuiting appliances, and Puerto Ricans using life-saving medical devices having their treatment obstructed. LUMA has also raised energy prices seven times, and Puerto Ricans (43% of whom live below the poverty line) pay more than double the average rate for electricity than the rest of the U.S. As one organizer says, “This isn’t just one company taking advantage of Puerto Rico — this is American imperialism.” While it is still too early to know the full extent of damage Fiona has caused for Puerto Ricans and the electrical system, we know that Puerto Ricans have a right to a resilient, functional, community-based power grid. Five years after Hurricane Maria claimed the lives of over 3,000 Puerto Ricans mostly due to electrical shortcomings, surely we can do better to address the massive failures in the former administration's response to Hurricane Maria and the power grid. This time for Puerto Rico, we can and must get it right.    Sign if you agree: President Biden must address Puerto Rico's power grid failures.          SIGN THE PETITION         Keep fighting,            Jayleen Alvarado, Daily Kos.                                                 Daily Kos Liberation League Relies on Activists Like You. Half our revenue comes from readers like you, meaning we literally couldn't do this work without you. Can you chip in $5 right now to help Daily Kos Liberation League keep fighting ? Chip in $5 I Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible.