Puerto Rico Needs Public Power, Not More Disastrous Privatization
Puerto Rico is still reeling in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, with hundreds of thousands without electricity. Energy privatization has made the problem worse — and the solution, historically, has been to fight it in the streets.
People march along Las Americas Highway as they hold Puerto Rican flags to demand the expulsion of power company Luma amid a continued lack of electricity across the island, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on October 15, 2021. (Ricardo Aduengo / AFP via Getty Images)
On September 18, Hurricane Fiona slammed into Puerto Rico, causing significant flooding and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. More than a week later, nearly half of Puerto Ricans are still in the dark, unable to preserve their food, refrigerate their insulin, or power their respirators.
LUMA Energy, the North American company that now operates major parts of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, is at the center of this debacle. LUMA began overseeing the transmission and distribution of electricity in Puerto Rico in the summer of 2021, promising lower rates and better service than the austerity- and hurricane-plagued public system, called Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), that it replaced.
But privatization, so often the policy choice of pro-business politicians in the wake of a disaster, has yielded underwhelming results. Since the takeover, LUMA has raised electricity rates and overseen massive power outages, provoking a seemingly endless cacerolazo — a cacophony of banging pots and pans — in protest against the privatization.
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