By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia asked politicians on Monday for a truce with the governor-elect.
“There is one year for election campaigns and for the back-and-forth that is taking place between the five parties in Puerto Rico right now,” the outgoing governor said at a press conference. “But I hope that in the next three years there will be a spirit of collaboration with the next administration, outside of party lines, because the success of the next administration will be the success of Puerto Rico.”
Regarding the task force appointed by Governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón to work on the island’s energy transformation, Pierluisi said “there are plenty of workshops in that area.”
“The main challenge or the main problem facing Puerto Rico is the state of our electrical system,” he said. “So the more resources the next administration has, the better. There are people there, some of those appointed people, obviously have experience in this field. Others, well, can contribute from another perspective, but I see it in a good light …”
One of the committee’s tasks will be finding a replacement for LUMA Energy, the private operator of the electric power transmission and distribution system. The governor said that when LUMA was chosen, it was the best of the two that completed the bidding process at the Public-Private Partnerships Authority.
“The other bidder wanted an increase in the rate, practically immediately, and that is why it was rejected,” Pierluisi said. “LUMA’s performance is not what I expected, it is not what anyone expected. But it is in charge of the network right now. So, … we have to be very careful if we are going to cancel that contract, because what we do not want is for that network to go down, so that you have a general blackout here from one day to the next.”
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