RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:AperI think a bunch of us could send AOC's office the article from The Nation and the link to APER's letter (below).
Points to cover: (these could be made in comments to the FOMB, the House Natural Resource Committee members, or your House Rep and Senators, too.)
1. 16 shovel ready solar projects have been waiting eight years to get the greenlight, while the electric system has deteriorated. All 16 have been vetted and approved by PREPA and PREB.
2. These projects will strengthen the failing grid and insulate ratepayers from volatile fossil fuel prices. They will enhance human health and lessen pollution on an island that depends on tourism.
3. These projects will bring $1.17 billion in capital investment, 241 million in wages and 8,900+ jobs. Only 46% of PR's jobs lost to Covid have returned.
4. APER's letter destroys the FOMB's straw man arguments against approving all 16 projects. The FOMB's arguments ignore the economics of solar energy, demonstrating gross incompetence and the obfuscation of basic facts.
5. The Nation article charges that LUMA Energy and LNG importers have corruptly influenced the FOMB, against the interests of PR's electric ratepayers.
6. Respected leaders throughout PR are pointing out that the FOMB's autocratic decisions on energy are part of a much larger agenda to privatize all of the island's essential services for the benefit of foreign corporate interests and to the detriment of its citizens and capacity for home rule.
If the above points come in from enough people, the staffer assigned to her Puerto Rican initiatives will see the wide open opportunity for her to score political points with her Latino constituents, Green New Deal followers and friends in PR. Anything she does to highlight the above points will put more pressure on the FOMB.
Links:
https://pdfhost.io/v/Pixrpad5i_2021_01_12_APER_Letter_to_NJ_Response_to_Chair_Natural_Reosurcespdf.pdf https://www.thenation.com/article/world/puerto-rico-privatization-prepa/