Trump administration scraps multimillion-dollar – ABC News

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — US President Donald Trump’s administration has canceled millions of dollars’ worth of solar projects in Puerto Rico, as the island grapples with chronic power outages and a crumbling power grid.

The projects aimed to help 30,000 low-income families in rural areas of the United States, part of a fading transition to renewable energy.

In an email obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Energy said the former Puerto Rico governor’s push for a 100% renewable future threatened the reliability of its energy system.

“Puerto Rico’s grid cannot afford to run on more distributed solar power,” the post said. “The rapid and widespread deployment of rooftop solar has created fluctuations in Puerto Rico’s grid, leading to unacceptable instability and fragility. »

Javier Rúa Jovet, public policy director for the Puerto Rico Solar and Energy Storage Association, disputed that statement in a phone interview Thursday.

He said some 200,000 families in Puerto Rico rely on solar power, which generates nearly 1.4 gigawatts of energy per day for the rest of the island.

“This helps prevent power outages,” he said, adding that the inverters in these systems also help regulate grid fluctuations.

He said he was saddened by the cancellation of solar projects. “Honestly, it’s a tragedy,” he said. “These are funds for the most needy. »

Earlier this month, the Department of Energy canceled three programs, including one worth $400 million, that would have installed solar and battery storage systems in low-income homes and those with medical needs.

In its email, the department said that on Jan. 9, it would reallocate up to $350 million from distributed private solar systems to support fixes to improve electricity production in Puerto Rico. It was not immediately clear whether that funding had been allocated.

One such program would have funded solar projects for 150 low-income households on the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra.

“People are really upset and angry,” said Dan Whittle, associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, which oversaw the project. “They see other people keeping the lights on during these power outages, and they don’t know why they’re not included.”

He noted that a privately funded project installed solar panels and batteries in 45 homes per week before Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico in September 2022.

Whittle said he was baffled by the federal government’s decision.

“They’re buying hook, line and sinker thinking solar is the problem. That couldn’t be more wrong,” he said.

The solar projects were part of an initial $1 billion fund created by the U.S. Congress in 2022 under former President Joe Biden to help build the energy resilience of Puerto Rico, which is still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria.

The category 4 storm hit the island in September 2017, razing an electricity network already weakened by a lack of maintenance and investment. Outages have persisted since then, with massive outages on New Year’s Eve in 2024 and during Holy Week last year.

In recent years, residents and businesses who could afford it have adopted solar power on an island of 3.2 million people with a poverty rate of more than 40 percent.

But more than 60 percent of the island’s energy is still produced by oil-fired power plants, 24 percent by natural gas, 8 percent by coal and 7 percent by renewable energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The cancellation of the solar projects comes a month after the administration of Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González sued Luma Energy, a private company overseeing electricity transmission and distribution on the island.

At the time, González said the electricity system “has not improved with the speed, consistency or efficiency that Puerto Rico deserves.”

The fragility of Puerto Rico’s energy system is further exacerbated by the struggle to restructure more than $9 billion in debt held by the island’s Electric Power Authority, which has failed to reach an agreement with creditors.