Time to turn up the heat on Natalie and the FOMB board members. Feel free to borrow anything here in your own comment. The more heat we create the better. The newly appointed board members will not want to begin their tenure under a cloud they had nothing to do with creating. Post your comments to the FOMB here:
https://airtable.com/shrmfOyOd50rdRQf0 My comments and ?'s:
A growing majority of people on and off the island believe the FOMB has overstepped its mandate as set forth in PROMESA and has become the de facto, unelected rulers of Puerto Rico. There are many areas of the former public sector that could be cited, but I will mostly focus on the Board’s questionable decisions on energy policy. A 12/1/20 article in
The Nation levelled scathing charges. It is entitled:
“Privatizing Puerto Rico: The rushed sell off of the territory’s electrical utility is part of a larger move to gut public goods for private profit.” www.thenation.com/article/world/puerto-rico-privatization-prepa/
In a 12/7/20 letter to the FOMB, the Congressional Natural Resources Committee questioned the arbitrary decision by the FOMB to limit the 593MWs of shovel ready Legacy Solar project PPOA’s to 150MWs. The FOMB’s 12/21/20 response to Congress was either disingenuous or an embarrassing admission of their inability to understand the basics of solar energy. Anyone with minimal knowledge could see right through the FOMB’s straw man arguments, but the testimony of industry experts is even more damning. Most notably, the Asociacion de Productores de Energia Renovable (APER) provided a seven page, point by point refutation on 1/12/21 that rejects the
“… FOMB’s premises, bases and conclusions, which have demonstrably been shown to be defective and faulty.” https://pdfhost.io/v/Pixrpad5i_2021_01_12_APER_Letter_to_NJ_Response_to_Chair_Natural_Reosurcespdf.pdf Would the FOMB please address APER’s assertion that “…14 of those 16 Legacy Projects have solid grounds to claim against PREPA for their arbitrary rejection, and the direct losses of all monies invested during the past 8 years as the result of the implementation of your [the FOMB’s] course of action to reject the PPOAs on the unfounded bases, which we have repeatedly pointed out.”
Will the FOMB indemnify and hold harmless PREPA against all court cases and legal judgements that may be made against it due to the FOMB’s ill-advised rejection of the Legacy Solar PPOA’s?
The weak arguments in the FOMB’s response lead knowledgeable observers to suspect that it is blocking shovel ready solar energy projects in order to protect the interests of LUMA Energy and LNG importers. The Board could eliminate the appearance of corruption here by approving all 593 MWs of the shovel ready Legacy Solar projects already approved by PREPA, PREB and the legal Government of Puerto Rico.
Approving these projects will create a more resilient grid, capital investment of $1.171 billion dollars, $244 million dollars in wages and salaries, and at least 8,900 jobs. These projects will safeguard the environment, reduce fossil fuel use, provide stable power prices for years to come, and eliminate the legal liability created by the Board’s prior decision. I ask the Board to consider the greater interests of the people of Puerto Rico and immediately approve the shovel ready solar projects.
Furthermore, the Congressional Natural Resources Committee has attempted with little success to assert its oversight role of the FOMB. According to the Nation article cited above:
“In May, Representative Ral Grijalva of Arizona put together legislation that, among other reforms, would force the FOMB to define essential services. Days later, FOMB executive director Natalie Jaresko refused to do so, saying it would give the impression that the board should ‘only limit themselves to subsidize the minimum required government services.’” Would Ms. Jaresko and the appointed members of the FOMB address whether they answer to Congress and the laws it passes, or have they decided their interpretation of PROMESA and rule of Puerto Rico is now absolute?
Would the Congressional Natural Resources Committee, other members of Congress and the Biden Administration please assert your authority and stop the abuses of this unelected, autocratic government created by the PROMESA act?