Clean energy journalist Maria Gallucci explains the bottlenecks in federal disaster recovery funding meant to rebuild Puerto Rico's electrical grid.
Assertion Supported
PREPA waited months to request mainland utility mutual aid after Maria
“Puerto Rico has that as well, but for whatever reason, for reasons that are unclear, PREPA did not initiate that process until months later.”
Assertion Supported
PREPA signed a $1.5 billion gas infrastructure deal with New Fortress
“In twenty-nineteen, PREPA signed a 1.5 billion dollar contract with an American company called New Fortress Energy. To replace, ah, two of its oil-fired power plants with fossil gas, and kind of more controversially, to build an import terminal for liquefied f…”
Opinion
Gallucci: eVTOLs target taxi replacement rather than airline emissions
“Well, with the eVTOLs that you brought up, those are so interesting because they're kind of not, at least at this stage in their development, they're not going after the emissions from passenger air travel. They're kind of trying to create a new segment of avi…”
Assertion Supported
ICCT: Waste oil and animal fats meet just 2% of SAF needs
“One estimate by the International Council on Clean Transportation is about two percent. About, if we used all of the used cooking oil and animal fats, that could account for about two percent of sustainable aviation fuel.”
Opinion
Gallucci: Puerto Rico's Hurricane Fiona Grid Collapse Was Preventable
“My sense is that, yes, it was preventable, especially because Hurricane Fiona was a Category One hurricane, and Hurricane Maria, when it approached the island, it was Category Five, which is the strongest level of hurricane-force winds, and when it made landfa…”
Assertion Supported
Gallucci: Disaster Funds Are Primarily Rebuilding Puerto Rico's Vulnerable Centralized Grid
“These funds, these efforts, are largely being used to rebuild the existing grid. Sort of this centralized system with far-flung power plants and long transmission and distribution lines that, as we've seen again and again, are vulnerable to extreme weather eve…”