Profiteering in Puerto Rico
Profiteering in Puerto Rico
Plus an interview with Ukraine's nuclear chief and a look at carbon pipelines.
Greetings from breezy Astoria, Queens, where the massive rezoning project that would bring thousands of new housing units has won over one of its biggest local critics, but not the one who will likely decide its fate.
A belated shana tova to those of you who also marked the past month’s holidays. While fasting on Yom Kippur, I thought a lot about my friends and sources in Puerto Rico, deprived over and over again of electricity. It’s been this way for some time now, but that basic necessity to survive in the modern world was left out of reach for weeks over the past month. I tried to get a grip on why, and that’s the main thing I’m writing to tell you about now.
First, allow me to quickly point you to a few other recent stories. On Tuesday, I interviewed Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear agency. We talked about the growing risk of an accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, what that would mean for the future of atomic energy, and why he thinks the U.S. needs to get over the Plant Vogtle issues and build more AP-1000 reactors. You can read that story here.
I also caught an interesting detail in a recent BloombergNEF report on carbon capture and sequestration. The vast majority of captured CO2 today ends up being used to drill more oil. By 2030, that’s going to completely reverse. Check out the chart below, and read that story here
Related to that, I published a small scoop from the Biden administration. The Department of Energy’s $2 billion fund to finance new CO2 pipelines and other infrastructure to make carbon capture work is open for business. You can read about that here.
And finally, you can read a short report from me and my colleague Kevin Robillard on why a progressive climate group is spending ad dollars on Wisconsin’s gubernatorial election.
Puerto Rico’s power grid is still collapsing. Blackouts got worse after the private company LUMA Energy took over electricity sales from the indebted state-owned utility. Rates went up 7 times. People are getting sick as diabetics struggle to maintain diets and keep insulin refrigerated.
Yet the Texas company that co-owns LUMA is looking for an even bigger payday in Puerto Rico.
For months now, Houston-based Quanta Services has been telling investors its 50% stake in LUMA would open the door to more big-dollar federal deals to rebuild Puerto Rico’s grid. Its CEO reiterated the point in an earnings call weeks before Hurricane Fiona.
But then the minor Category 1 storm knocked out the territory’s entire power grid. It showed how little progress has been made toward restoring a basic level of modern life to the United States’ most populous territorial possession almost exactly five years after Hurricane María’s Category 5 winds first destroyed the electrical system. It also showed flaws in LUMA’s strategy.
The company lost hundreds of experienced line workers by refusing to honor their existing union contract, leaving the utility perennially understaffed. When municipalities hired some of those former utility line workers, LUMA threatened lawsuits. But at least one town fixed 99% of its power lines on its own that way.
The example suggests that the company has prioritized work it can control and bill federal authorities for over the expediency that could come from employing the local workforce. And that alone might cost the debt-choked territorial government – and the Puerto Ricans forced to pay back creditors through brutal austerity – even more money.
You can read the full story here on HuffPost.
“Yes! You caught me! We still produce oil in this country. You’re very clever, Akshat.” Asked why Canada has failed to reduce its emissions in line with other rich nations, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau snapped at Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi, making for a gripping and telling exchange. Bloomberg
Drax is shying away from industry conferences. The British utility giant – which harvests and mills wood in mostly Black, poor parts of the U.S. South, then burns it for electricity in England to exploit a carbon loophole — pulled out of sponsoring two industry confabs, including one on carbon capture. DeSmog
The Biden administration is pumping almost $3 billion into the battery industry. Is it creating jobs? So far, as my friend Jael Holzman writes, the answer is no. E&E News
Thank China for reasonable gas prices. Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policies are tanking global demand for oil and gas, softening the blow of OPEC’s decision to cut production despite U.S. pleas to ramp up. The Atlantic
The SEC is backing off a key climate regulation. The agency is reportedly shying away from a policy to force companies to report emissions throughout their entire supply chains. Semafor
Thanks for your attention. Here’s something nice.