By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration will halt funding of $365 million awarded during the previous administration for rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico and redirect it to fossil fuel burning plants and maintenance of infrastructure, it said on Wednesday.
Puerto Rico has long dealt with widespread power outages due to the U.S. territory’s crumbling infrastructure, the 2017 bankruptcy of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and a string of devastating hurricanes. It experienced a wide blackout a month ago, followed by an outage that hit 134,000 customers.
The Department of Energy said the funding will be redirected away from solar power to fixes that can be deployed immediately “such as dispatching baseload generation units, supporting vegetation control to protect transmission lines and upgrading aging infrastructure.” Baseload generation in this case refers to power plants that run on oil products and potentially natural gas.
Last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an emergency order that directed Puerto Rico’s state-owned utility to tackle electricity shortfalls with power generated by oil-burning power plants, which emit pollution, including the greenhouse gases that cause climate change and global warming.
The administration of President Donald Trump has supported maximizing the output of fossil fuels and dismantling policies by former President Joe Biden’s administration designed to spur use of renewable power.
“The redirection of these funds will expand access to reliable power for millions of people rather than thousands and generate a higher return on investment for taxpayers while advancing grid resiliency for Puerto Rico,” the department said on Wednesday.
The Biden administration awarded the funding for solar power and battery storage in late 2024, for projects that had been slated to begin construction in 2026.
The DOE said the redirected funding will support practical fixes and activities that offer faster help, benefiting facilities, including hospitals and community centers.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Jasper Ward; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
