By The Star Staff
Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón said Monday that U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm “needs to stop talking about solar panels.”
“The Secretary of Energy at the federal level returns to Puerto Rico to talk about solar panels and I believe that it is time for federal and state officials to stop talking about solar panels and talk about generation,” González Colón said in response to questions from the press. “The panels are cool, but how do we generate energy so that Puerto Rico is not turned off? That should be a priority instead of talking about projects that yes, that benefit us and that we agree with.”
“We can’t wait to have a hurricane and the impact of a storm in Puerto Rico and then see what we’re going to do, if we’re going to put in another generator, it’s time, the funds are there,” the gubernatorial candidate said. “How many permits have been requested, and if it’s the federal government through the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] or the Department of Energy that are not complying, they’re dragging their feet. That is why I am also convening the United States Congress, in this case the Committee on Natural Resources in the House, to help us also, to put federal agencies in their place.”
González Colón made her remarks in reaction to LUMA Energy’s request to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau for additional funds.
“I believe that those people at LUMA have lost track of the reality of what the people of Puerto Rico are experiencing,” she said. “When this contract [for operating the island’s electricity transmission and distribution system] was awarded, it was done knowing the conditions of the system, the environmental conditions, the probability of hurricanes on the island. And every time there is a public controversy, a way to solve it arises in which a new charge is imposed. A new charge if the electrical appliances are going to be fixed, a new charge if they are going to cut vegetation, a new charge if a new generating plant has to be installed. And I think it’s no longer funny that this company doesn’t talk about what was programmed when this hiring was carried out. All these things had to be foreseeable.”
González Colón added that in her opinion, with LUMA Energy it “is as if every day they look for an excuse to break the contract.”
Mrs. González, in case this had not been explain well to you, the panels represents and inmediate paliative to the Puerto Rican energy crisis that you contributed to create. They, the panels, collect energy, pass it on to batteries and address immediately a problem that your political party governor, with the consent of the party's membership including you, had exacerbated to a point that people are losing their lives.
It's time to be serious and less selfish about our actions toward the wellbeing of PR; we are all in this mess, some are being harm more than others but eventually, everyone will feel the impact of 76 years of mismanagement and corruption. Let's go for the panels; meanwhile, let's work…
The hurricane season has begun, and Puerto Rice is far from able to withstand another devastating storm. A Federal and commonwealth solution to resolving decades-old electrical deficiencies must be achieved. Soon not later.
It's really upsetting to hear Mrs. J. González about the LUMA's debacle as a project or hiring, as she calls it, like she didn't have to do anything with it; if she doesn't remember, let's remind her that her political trajectory has always been under the NPP flag. Her stings as representative were under the NPP; she has served in leadership positions in the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico (PNP) and in the Republican Party of the United States. These positions included: chairwoman of the Puerto Rico Republican Party, speaker and minority leader of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, and vice-chair of the PNP.
Talking about solar panels as a failed attempt to be replaced with more…