Action Alerts

Select language:

Support Green Energy for Puerto Rico

What's At Stake

Acceda a este material en español. In what has become the new normal in Puerto Rico after a storm, millions were powerless after Hurricane Fiona overwhelmed the archipelago’s fragile centralized electrical grid. With transmission lines dead and generators shut down, only the relatively few Puerto Ricans with rooftop solar and battery storage were able to maintain power to keep electronics charged and medicine and food unspoiled. Urge Secretary Granholm and Puerto Rico Governor Pierluisi to chart a different course.

Read More

Fiona exposed the same vulnerabilities in Puerto Rico’s centralized grid that Hurricane Maria did in 2017, when many of its three million residents were without power for nearly a year. Over 3,000 lives were lost — many died in the aftermath of the Hurricane, while the electric grid was down.

There’s an opportunity now for Puerto Ricans to revolutionize their energy future. FEMA allocated $14B for transformation of Puerto Rico’s energy system after Maria. Most of those funds remain unspent. After Hurricane Fiona, President Biden gave Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm authority over funds for the grid.

The only way to transition the archipelago to a reliable, affordable, healthy and climate-resilient energy grid is for Granholm and Governor Pierluisi to prioritize investments in rooftop solar and battery storage for all residents of Puerto Rico. The money is there, and the Queremos Sol report shows that this amount is more than enough to fully power the entire grid with rooftop solar and storage systems on a million Puerto Rico rooftops. The federal government and Governor Pierluisi just need to spend it for the benefit of all Puerto Ricans.

It’s critical this money is spent wisely. Puerto Rico cannot become climate resilient by propping up a dilapidated, highly-centralized grid that is fueled by dirty energy and depends on vulnerable transmission lines. Research shows that distributed rooftop solar energy and battery storage could be installed on houses and apartment buildings throughout Puerto Rico, potentially providing four times as much energy as the entire archipelago uses.

Investing federal dollars into rooftop solar and storage systems is what will truly enable a resilient, clean grid for Puerto Rico, as those systems are proven viable and are critical to shut down coal and diesel plants in the short term.

Fifty percent of Puerto Ricans have low-to-moderate incomes. This is a matter of economic justice and climate justice. Sticking with an outdated, fossil fuel-dependent transmission line technology that fails in storm after storm is unacceptable. Tell Secretary Granholm and Governor Pierluisi to take action now before Puerto Rico is plunged into darkness again and lives are needlessly lost.

A technician installs a solar energy system at a home in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, in July 2018.
A technician installs a solar energy system at a home in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, in July 2018. (Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo / AP)

Delivery to Secretary of Energy Granholm and Governor Pierluisi

Important Notice

Your message is delivered to a public agency, and all information submitted may be placed in the public record. Do not submit confidential information.

By taking action, you will receive emails from Earthjustice. Change your mailing preferences or opt-out at any time. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. This Earthjustice action is hosted on EveryAction. Learn about EveryAction’s Privacy Policy.

Trouble Viewing This Action?

If the action form is not loading above, please add earthjustice.org as a trusted website in your ad blocker or pause any ad blockers, and refresh this webpage. (Details.) If the action form still does not display, please report the problem to us at action@earthjustice.org. Thank you!

Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.