By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, in remarks to reporters on Monday, said his meeting last week with governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón was focused on the government transition, “the challenges that Puerto Rico has in its future” and “a possible extraordinary session of the Legislative Assembly.”
“We talked about all those issues,” Pierluisi said. “As for the challenges, well, what I indicated to the governor-elect is that the greatest challenge that Puerto Rico has is the stability and transformation of our electrical system. That is obvious; that is the greatest challenge. And the [resident] commissioner has some programmatic commitments that I am sure she will make an effort to fulfill.”
Regarding the ongoing challenges posed by the island’s fragile power grid, the governor said “I mentioned to her that we are requesting an extension for two additional years of the use of the additional generators that we have that burn natural gas and that provide us with 350 megawatts.”
“And that process is already underway,” he said. “I mentioned it to the governor-elect and days later it came to light that FEMA is already considering that extension request. That is very important because we obviously know that the biggest problem that our electrical system has at the moment is the lack of generation. This is very finite; that is, we can barely … supply all the demand that we have. And if we lose those 350 megawatts from one year to the next, well, it would cause greater interruptions than we have had in recent times and we do not want that.”
Pierluisi added that “I also mentioned that we continue to insist that we want an adjustment for the extraordinary inflation experienced in the United States, including Puerto Rico in the funds that FEMA has assigned us for the entire reconstruction.”
“I informed the governor-elect that if [those requests] do not bear fruit now, then we must resume them in January,” he said.
Regarding the extraordinary session, the governor said “we merely spoke in general terms about the bills that could be included in the extraordinary session.”
“The governor-elect asked me for a copy of all the bills that I mentioned in the meeting and that could be included and that is being processed …” Pierluisi said. “What I am looking for is a consensus, since both the legislative leadership and the governor-elect are in agreement […], on the scope of the extraordinary session. If that is so, then it will happen. Otherwise it will not happen because I will not be generating unnecessary controversies. But I insist that there are some areas that can be addressed and it makes sense that they be addressed now, before the four-year term ends.”
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