By The Star Staff
The Financial Oversight and Management Board has given the Legislature until Tuesday to reverse Act 10-2024, which bans the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB), the electricity sector regular, from conducting a net metering and energy distribution study until January 2030 and from making any changes to the current net metering program until after it completes the delayed study.
The Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act of 2019 requires that the PREB operate independently and “free from any direct or indirect political influence or interference.” Such independence is the cornerstone of an effective energy sector, the law stresses.
Act 10 intrudes on PREB’s independence and is inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and the Fiscal Plan for the Commonwealth, the oversight board said.
“We raised these and other concerns in our letter dated April 10, 2024, to which the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF) responded on April 15, 2024,” the board said. “In its letter, AAFAF did not challenge the Oversight Board’s concerns, although AAFAF observed that the Executive Branch has no authority to repeal or amend legislation unilaterally. While we appreciate AAFAF’s response, the letter does not resolve the issues raised by the Oversight Board.”
“That is why today the Oversight Board again urges the Executive Branch to take immediate action and work with the Legislative Assembly to repeal or amend Act 10 to restore PREB’s full statutory oversight over Puerto Rico’s energy system” the oversight board said. “The system has only just begun to recover from decades of political mismanagement that left the people of Puerto Rico with a failing electric grid.”
As written, Act 10 is significantly inconsistent with the commonwealth and PREPA fiscal plans, constitutes impermissible control over the oversight board’s activities in violation of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) and impairs or defeats the purposes of PROMESA as determined by the oversight board, the board said.
The government enacted Act 10 to stop any fees or charges on solar panels.