Powering an Energy Revolution in Puerto Rico

Highlights

• Earthjustice partners, represented by Center for Biological Diversity, won a court ruling (2025) ordering FEMA to study distributed rooftop solar as grid alternative
• Secured $1 billion Congressional allocation for Puerto Rico energy resilience
• Fighting to direct $12+ billion in remaining FEMA funds away from fossil fuel rebuild

Damage to Puerto Rico’s infrastructure has exceeded $100 billion since Hurricane María devastated the archipelago in 2017. FEMA has awarded over $23 billion in recovery funds since then, yet for years directed that money toward rebuilding the same centralized fossil fuel grid that failed. Conservation and community groups, represented by The Center for Biological Diversity and in partnership with Earthjustice, won a legal challenge to those plans. A 2025 ruling orders FEMA to prepare an environmental impact statement that must analyze distributed renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Congress also passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act in December 2022, allocating $1 billion specifically for energy resilience improvements in Puerto Rico, including access to solar energy for low-income individuals and people with disabilities. Those funds were diverted away from solar infrastructure by the Trump administration.

Our partners: Queremos Sol, Alianza Energía Renovable Ahora (AERA), Center for Biological Diversity, and community groups

Entities involved: FEMA, U.S. Department of Energy

The group Comunidad Guayamesa Unidos por tu Salud installs solar power systems, like this one at a home in Guayama, Puerto Rico. (Erika P. Rodríguez for Earthjustice)

Highlights

• Filed lawsuit against Puerto Rico government to halt illegal industrial solar siting on agricultural land
• Built public record on harms to food security, farming communities, and ecosystems
• Continuing advocacy to protect arable land and small farmers

Large-scale solar projects located on agricultural lands that are deforested for that purpose exacerbate food scarcity in Puerto Rico, displace small farmers, increase the risk of flooding, and perpetuate the centralized electric system that has failed the archipelago for decades. Rooftop solar solves the same energy problem without jeopardizing food security.

Earthjustice sued the Puerto Rico government on behalf of six environmental and agricultural organizations and an inter-municipal alliance to prevent the illegal siting of utility-scale renewable energy projects on agricultural and ecologically sensitive land without thorough community and ecosystem impact assessments. Although the court did not rule in our favor, the case forced a public conversation about the real costs of industrial solar on farmland. We continue providing advocacy support for our clients.

Our clients and partners: Liga de Ciudades PR Inc., Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Eco Orgánica Inc., Frente Unido Pro-Defensa del Valle de Lajas, Inc., El Puente, Inc., Comité Diálogo Ambiental Inc., Sierra Club, Tierras pa’ Agricultura and Techos Pa’ Energía Coalition

Land cleared of vegetation in 2025 for a massive solar project by AES Power in Guayama, P.R. The coal-burning facility expanded to build a large-scale solar project on over a thousand acres of agricultural land. (Erika P. Rodriguez for Earthjustice)

Highlights

• Won: The Energy Bureau rejected LUMA’s and Genera PR’s most aggressive rate hike proposals (April 2026)
• Led first-of-its-kind coordinated public engagement campaign in Energy Bureau proceedings
• Continuing to challenge rate restructuring that harms low-income households

Despite a history of inconsistent and costly electricity service, LUMA Energy submitted a proposal to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) seeking a rate increase that would have added $40 or more to monthly bills, a severe burden on an archipelago that already pays some of the highest energy costs compared to continental U.S. consumers.

Earthjustice mounted an unprecedented, coordinated public engagement strategy to ensure that concerned residents could meaningfully participate in Energy Bureau proceedings. In April 2026, the Energy Bureau’s order explicitly acknowledged that public participation played a decisive role in its rejection of LUMA Energy and Genera PR’s most aggressive proposed rate increases, which it found excessive and unduly burdensome to ratepayers. We continue to monitor the Energy Bureau’s reduced rate restructuring, which would disproportionately harm economically vulnerable households.

Our clients: Comité Diálogo Ambiental, Inc.; El Puente, Inc.; Frente Unido Pro Defensa del Valle de Lajas, Inc.; CAMBIO PR, Inc.; and Comité Yabucoeño Pro Calidad de Vida, Inc.

Entities involved: Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, LUMA Energy, Genera PR

Transmission powerlines in Guayama, P.R. (Erika P. Rodríguez for Earthjustice)

Highlights

• Intervened on behalf of eight community, labor, and environmental groups (2021)
• Secured Energy Bureau directive requiring LUMA to include key performance metrics (energy efficiency/demand response, interconnection, and vegetation management)
• Won PREB’s approval of a lower incentive payments structure than the one requested by LUMA (2024)
• Puerto Rico Supreme Court upheld PREB’s authority to modify performance metrics and create penalties

LUMA Energy took control of the archipelago’s electricity transmission and distribution in 2021. Outages have grown 30% longer since then. LUMA demanded an incentive structure that would pay them an additional $20 million per year on top of a multimillion-dollar management contract. Puerto Rico’s government sued LUMA in December 2025 in the first legal step to cancel its contract.

In summer 2021, Earthjustice intervened on behalf of eight environmental, labor, and community groups in the Energy Bureau case reviewing LUMA’s proposed incentive structure. We successfully secured a requirement during the process for the Energy Bureau to direct LUMA to include performance metrics related to energy efficiency and demand response, interconnection, and vegetation management, key indicators for advancing the transition to renewable energy and ensuring system reliability. In spring 2024, we obtained a mixed decision in which the Energy Bureau authorized significantly lower incentives than LUMA proposed. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court upheld the Energy Bureau’s decision in its entirety and rejected LUMA’s claim that the Bureau lacked authority to modify the metrics, including the eventual creation of a penalty system.

Our clients: Comité Diálogo Ambiental, Inc.; El Puente, Inc.; Alianza Comunitaria Ambientalista del Sureste, Inc.; Coalición de Organizaciones Anti Incineración, Inc.; Amigos del Río Guaynabo, Inc.; Cambio PR, Inc.; Sierra Club; Unión de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica y Riego de Puerto Rico, Inc.

Entities involved: Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, LUMA Energy

A worker repairs power lines in San Isidro about two weeks after Hurricane Maria swept through the island of Puerto Rico on Oct. 5, 2017. Puerto Rico experienced widespread damage to the electrical, gas, and water grid in the aftermath of the category 4 hurricane. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Highlights

• Won FERC’s assertion of jurisdiction over the NFE methane import terminal (2020)
• Argued before D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn FERC approval (April 2025)
• Ongoing litigation and advocacy to compel completion of the overdue Environmental Impact Statement and prevent further unpermitted expansion (2020–present)

More than 2,700 people live within half a mile of a methane import terminal in San Juan Bay, and nearly 150,000 residents live within a three-mile radius of the terminal. New Fortress Energy and its subsidiary, NFEnergía, constructed and began operating the facility without required federal authorization. An accident at the facility or during the transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG) using oversized barges beyond those authorized, could endanger lives and cause a full interruption of food supply through the archipelago’s busiest port.

In 2020, in a proceeding in which Earthjustice intervened on behalf of environmental, labor and community groups, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) found the terminal was operating unlawfully. Yet instead of halting operations, FERC issued a limited temporary authorization and ordered the company to initiate the formal permitting process.

Despite this finding, FERC later allowed continued expansion of the terminal, including the construction of a pipeline, without completing the required environmental review or giving these communities the right to be heard. In April 2025, Earthjustice challenged these actions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Even though the court sided with FERC, we continue to fight for communities impacted by this expansion. The legally required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has yet to be issued, and the environmental review remains indefinitely delayed, in part due to ongoing unpermitted modifications by the operator. Earthjustice continues to evaluate and pursue available legal and advocacy avenues to compel completion of the long overdue environmental review and to prevent further expansion of unpermitted operations.

Our clients: El Puente, Inc.; Sierra Club, Inc.; Comité Yabucoeño Pro-Calidad de Vida, Inc.; Alianza Comunitaria Ambientalista del Sureste, Inc.; Mayagüezanos por la Salud y el Ambiente, Inc.; Coalición de Organizaciones Anti Incineración, Inc.; Amigos del Río Guaynabo, Inc.; Comité Diálogo Ambiental, Inc.; Unión de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica y Riego, Inc.; CAMBIO PR Inc.; and Mujeres de Islas, Inc.

Entities involved: FERC, New Fortress Energy / NFEnergía, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals

Highlights

• Convinced the Energy Bureau to reject a gas rush in favor of distributed renewables procurement (2020)
• Advocating for binding rooftop solar mandates and fossil fuel plant retirement schedules

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is the process by which Puerto Rico evaluates all energy resources to meet future demand. In August 2020, Earthjustice convinced the Energy Bureau to reject a proposed gas rush in favor of renewables procurement. But fossil fuel companies have continued to undermine the approved plan and the Energy Bureau has opted to approve industrial-scale projects on agricultural lands. LUMA’s latest proposed IRP prioritizes converting existing plants to methane gas and later to biodiesel, which LUMA classifies as “renewable,” prolonging fuel-based generation rather than accelerating a shift to solar and storage.

Our clients and partners: Environmental, labor and community groups, Queremos Sol, AERA, Tierras pa’ Agricultura y Techos pa’ Energía coalitions

Entities involved: Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, LUMA Energy

Coastal port rig where the AES coal plant imports coal for burning in Guayama. (Erika P. Rodriguez for Earthjustice)

Highlights

• Intervened in PROMESA / PREPA bankruptcy proceeding to oppose legacy charge structure
• Filed expert reports documenting mass grid defection and displacement risk
• Continuing to fight for a clean energy grid restructuring that centers residents

Under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), the fiscal oversight board proposed to pay back creditors of Puerto Rico’s public electric utility (PREPA) by charging customers a monthly fixed “legacy” charge for many years. Earthjustice intervened, warning that this plan would cause mass grid defection, impose additional energy burden on customers, and lead PREPA back into bankruptcy.

Through expert reports filed in the case, we showed that if the legacy charge is imposed, customers who can afford it will leave the grid and supply their own power through distributed generation, while those who cannot will face higher rates and may be forced to leave their homes or migrate. We are committed to transforming Puerto Rico’s grid into a climate-resilient rooftop solar system that works for everyone.

Our clients: Comité Diálogo Ambiental, Inc., El Puente, Inc., Comité Yabucoeño Pro-Calidad de Vida, Inc., Alianza Comunitaria Ambientalista del Sureste, Inc., Sierra Club, Inc., Mayagüezanos por la Salud y el Ambiente, Inc., Coalición de Organizaciones Anti Incineración, Inc., Amigos del Río Guaynabo, Inc.

Entities involved: PROMESA Fiscal Oversight Board, PREPA, bondholders, among others

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) headquarters building in Santurce, San Juan, P.R.(Erika P. Rodríguez for Earthjustice)

Highlights

• Engaged EPA and federal officials on coal ash violations at AES-PR
• Represented Comité Diálogo Ambiental in litigation related to federal coal ash rules protections
• Documenting violations and supporting community advocacy for monitoring and cleanup

Applied Energy Services Puerto Rico (AES-PR) stored coal ash, the toxic residue left after burning coal, in a mountainous pile and for years distributed it as cheap fill material branded “Agremax.” It was dumped at dozens of sites in southeastern Puerto Rico. The contamination threatens the health of low-income and Afro-Puerto Rican communities living near the plant. Puerto Rico’s legislature passed legislation in 2025 allowing the AES plant to continue operating through 2032, extending the initial 2028 closure deadline.

Earthjustice and its partners have met with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and federal officials to demand action protecting overburdened communities in Guayama and Salinas from coal ash hazards. We have identified violations of the federal Coal Ash Rule by AES-PR and are working with partners to document those concerns so they can advocate effectively for proper monitoring and cleanup. We have also represented Comité Diálogo Ambiental in litigation related to federal coal ash rules that affect the AES-PR site and surrounding areas.

Our clients: Comité Diálogo Ambiental and partner organizations

Entities involved: AES-PR , U.S. EPA

The AES Power Plant produces power by burning coal in Guayama, P.R. Visible behind the towering pile of coal is an uncovered mountain of toxic coal ash. (Erika P. Rodriguez for Earthjustice)