Members of Congress from Connecticut call for probe into funds intended for PR grid resiliency.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. DeLauro said the Trump administration has yet to provide answers about the funding intended for power grid resiliency in Puerto Rico. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By THE STAR STAFF

Connecticut’s members of Congress are calling for an investigation into the alleged misuse of federal funds intended to make Puerto Rico’s energy grid more resilient.

Democratic U.S. representatives from Connecticut, including John Larson, Rosa DeLauro and Joe Courtney, all signed a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright. In it, 46 members of Congress asked for a briefing to understand why the Trump administration has clawed back $715 million in federal funds since last fall.

Larson said the $1 billion Puerto Rico-Energy Resilience Fund, established by Congress in 2023, was intended to bolster many homes and businesses with private rooftop solar projects.

“That was designated to help power healthcare facilities, apartments and condos and keep the lights on for low-income families and people,” Larson said.

The hope was to give energy independence to private citizens on the island, particularly during disaster recovery, and lessen the day-to-day energy issues as well.

Customers in Puerto Rico have the most grid interruptions anywhere in the U.S., according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. While the nationwide average is two hours of interruptions per year as of 2024, Puerto Rico residents experience 27 hours of outages a year -- not including hurricane recovery periods. The next highest is similarly storm-prone Florida, where residents average 19 hours of interruptions a year.

Where are the rescinded dollars going?

DeLauro, who represents the Connecticut city with the second highest population of Boricuas in the state, saw the island’s energy issues firsthand after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. She traveled to Puerto Rico in the months after, as most residents were still relying on generator power running on fossil fuels.

She said the Trump administration has yet to provide answers about the funding intended for the U.S. territory. The move comes as the administration has fought to halt other renewable energy projects, including several wind projects off the coast of New England.

“We’re looking at Puerto Rico, which people [there] are all Americans,” said DeLauro of New Haven. “They’re disaster prone -- many over the last several years. They have a weak electrical grid, and this is appropriated dollars.”

“You’ve got an island that is totally dependent on imported fossil fuels, and only 1% of Puerto Rico’s energy is supplied from renewable resources,” she said.

U.S. Energy Information Administration data show petroleum accounts for 58% of Puerto Rico’s energy use, followed by natural gas at 31% and coal at 10% in 2023. A recent study commissioned under the Biden administration found a switch to 100% renewable energy would produce more than tenfold Puerto Rico’s current and projected energy needs through 2050.

Larson represents the district including Hartford, the area home to the most Puerto Ricans in the state. More than a third of the city’s population is Puerto Rican, according to the latest data from the University of Connecticut’s Puerto Rican Studies Initiative. The congressman said the island, as well as more than 300,000 Connecticut residents with ties to Puerto Rico, have a right to know where the money is now going.

“Oftentimes,” he said, “the undertones here is that people won’t mind that this is happening because it’s Puerto Rico and it’s not the mainland.”