Puerto Rico Trustee TripF E B R U A R Y 2 5 – 2 8 , 2 0 2 0

Puerto Rico Trustee TripF E B R U A R Y 2 5 – 2 8 , 2 0 2 0

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Climate-resilient, community-based low-carbon electricity for a healthier and more prosperous Puerto Rico.

Challenge and OpportunityIn September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, knocking out power for months and killing 3,000 people. The power loss also cut off basic services like clean water and sanitation, precipitating a humanitarian crisis as the economy ground to a halt.

Climate change promises to bring more storms like Maria that could devastate the power system, threatening communities, the economy and people’s lives.

But this doesn’t have to be the future: Local leaders are developing community-led solar power initiatives to help their towns withstand storms. An ambitious new energy law calls for Puerto Rico to run exclusively on renewables by 2050, and it has strong public and political support. And a young but strong regulatory body, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, has successfully pushed regulatory action on issues vital to upgrading the fragile grid.

EDF’s RoleEnvironmental Defense Fund is working with community leaders to create a more resilient power system in Puerto Rico. We focus on getting the policies and economics right to enable low-carbon community microgrids to play a role in building a cleaner, more reliable, and more resilient electric power system to serve the people of Puerto Rico.

Our strategy is threefold: 1. We work from the top down, getting the policies and regulatory

decisions in place to enable community-scale microgrids to easily connect to the grid.

2. We develop the financial case for public and private investors to support the transition so that it remains durable for the long term.

OUR VISION: A thriving network of towns and villages across Puerto Rico powered by clean, reliable, and affordable electricity. This empowers communities to be more resilient in the face of storms and other disasters, and points the way toward a sustainable, low-carbon energy future in the Caribbean and beyond.

Puerto Rico Trustee TripF E B R U A R Y 2 5 – 2 8 , 2 0 2 0

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3. We work from the bottom up, with communities that are leading the transition. Our objective is to create a community of communities operating microgrids — small electric networks that can run independently of the main grid when needed— ensuring that places in Puerto Rico poorly served by the current centralized system will have access to clean, affordable and reliable power, even after storms.

Few models exist for this kind of community scale distributed power generation in island nations, especially a system backed by effective policies and a strong economic case. Our vision is that success in Puerto Rico will create a path for climate-resilient community-based power across the Caribbean and beyond.

EDF brings to this work our expertise in U.S. states on policies and regulatory action to modernize the electric grid and transition to renewables. We also have pioneered innovative financing to support the transition to cleaner energy through tools like underwriting standards for clean energy projects that reduce risks and increase certainty for private investors.

Transforming Puerto Rico’s Electricity System for the Long TermHurricane Maria brought to the surface Puerto Rico’s history of energy infrastructure, policy and financial problems. Puerto Ricans have long suffered from frequent power outages as a result of poor grid maintenance by the island’s utility, Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Outdated infrastructure, a dwindling workforce and bankruptcy exacerbate the problems. Rural and lower income communities pay a high price for electricity and get unreliable service and pollution in return.

As in the rest of the United States, power in Puerto Rico is generated mostly at large, centralized plants. The majority of power is generated on the south coast of the island, while most power is consumed in the north, so the population must rely on vulnerable and poorly maintained transmission lines. Rural and small island communities are particularly at risk for frequent and prolonged disruptions in service. Puerto Rico also uses imported fuel, much of it diesel, resulting in considerable air pollution and some of the highest electricity costs in the United States.

Puerto Ricans have long

suffered from frequent power

outages as a result of poor grid

maintenance by the island’s utility,

Puerto Rican Electric Power

Authority (PREPA).

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To address problems with grid failures, air pollution, and unreliable, expensive power, especially during storms and other disasters, the government and philanthropists have supported projects to bring solar power to critical infrastructure, such as fire and police stations, community centers and hospitals. These efforts are essential to address the immediate needs that arise at a time of crisis. But the island also needs longer-term solutions to re-shape how energy is generated and delivered, to increase reliability and reduce pollution. Enabling rural communities and to benefit from clean, distributed electricity, requires a change in policies and regulations, the training of a qualified workforce within communities for the operation and maintenance of the systems, and the development of financing models to fund and maintain the required infrastructure.

Achieving the goal of clean, resilient power for Puerto Rico requires a comprehensive plan that integrates community microgrids into the island’s grid and supports communities with technical expertise to establish self-sufficiency. In addition to technical and policy innovation, remaking Puerto Rico’s energy system requires new financing models that blend public and private capital, catalyzed by philanthropic dollars. Pilot projects that get started with an initial injection of public finance and philanthropic support must ultimately offer a return to private capital to be sustainable in the eyes of investors. Getting the financing right is essential to accelerating clean power solutions for other vulnerable and poorly served communities across the Caribbean and the developing world.

Community Power: Culebra Located 17 miles east of the main island of Puerto Rico, Culebra is also known as “Isla Chiquita” (small island) and renowned for its rugged countryside and pristine beaches, including Flamenco Beach, often ranked as one of the best beaches in the United States.

Culebra’s small size and distance from population centers make it especially vulnerable to power loss. After Maria, people had to rely on noisy, dirty diesel generators for 18 months, and fuel was scarce. The island’s communities have a strong legacy of environmental leadership, and local leaders have agreed to work with us, making it a great place to start building the future of energy in Puerto Rico.

Culebra’s history of sustainability goes back more than a century. President Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra National Wildlife

“Achieving the goal of clean,

resilient power for Puerto Rico

requires a compre-hensive plan

that integrates community

microgrids into the island’s grid

and supports communities with

technical expertise to establish

self-sufficiency.

Puerto Rico Trustee TripF E B R U A R Y 2 5 – 2 8 , 2 0 2 0

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Refuge in 1909, making it one of the oldest refuges in the system. Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has protected about 20% of the island and the surrounding 23 islets for seabirds and turtles. The islands are one of only two nesting sites for giant sea turtles in the U.S. The mangroves within the refuge offer a unique and vital habitat for coastal wildlife.

After World War II, the U.S. Navy used Culebra for military exercises. In 1970, residents began a concerted effort to convince the Navy and the U.S. government to cease this practice. The mayor of Culebra, Ramón Feliciano Encarnación (one of the main streets in Culebra is named after him), led a years-long effort to stop these exercises. After legal action in U.S. federal courts, lobbying and publicizing the ongoing struggle in national newspapers, Culebra’s residents succeeded when President Richard Nixon terminated the exercises in 1974.

Today community leaders are focused on ensuring Culebra’s residents can maintain resilience and thrive in the face of storms, earthquakes and other challenges.

Our Partners in CulebraDulce del Rio-Pineda, Mujeres de Islas: Del Rio-Pineda is a co-founder of Mujeres de Islas, a women’s collective that is strengthening Culebra’s self-reliance. They promote efforts that can comprehensively impact the island’s cultural, environmental and socio-economic development. As climate change threatens Puerto Rico with increasingly damaging storms, the group is turning to solar power, starting with a community kitchen that doubles as a culinary school. “It’s not just throwing panels on houses,” says del Rio-Pineda. “EDF knows the policies and economics that can help communities become sustainable.”

Luz Rivera-Cantwell, Culebra Foundation: Rivera-Cantwell is president of the Culebra Foundation and directs its Culebra Museum, which works to preserve the history, culture and environment of the island. The museum, built in 1908, also serves as a resilience center for the community, with large water tanks, solar lighting and other amenities. The foundation has a strong social and educational focus, and promotes programs that integrate history, culture, and the environment to underscore and strengthen self-sufficiency within the island.

Dulce del Rio-PinedaMujeres de Islas

Luz Rivera-CantwellCulebra Foundation

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Theresa Bischoff, Foundation for a Better Puerto Rico: Bischoff is a cofounder of the Foundation for a Better Puerto Rico, which focuses on helping Culebra and Puerto Rico recover in the aftermath of Maria and other disasters. Through partnerships with various organizations, the foundation supports programs and initiatives that will help make communities on the island stronger, and more self-sufficient and resilient in the face of extreme weather events. The group’s mission: “We hope that Culebra’s experiences in becoming a sustainable community with the highest quality of life will become a model that others will want to replicate in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.”

Additional Partners in Puerto RicoPara La Naturaleza: A leading non-profit organization in Puerto Rico, Para La Naturaleza integrates society in the conservation of ecosystems. For 50 years, it has worked with partners to protect nature and encourage people to take responsibility for natural resources while advocating for protective policies that benefit the environment and people. It has a goal to protect 33% of Puerto Rico’s natural ecosystems by 2033. PLN’s regional headquarters are in a carefully restored manor house at Hacienda La Esperanza Nature Reserve in Manatí, the biggest of its type in the northwest area of Puerto Rico. Hacienda La Esperanza features a sugar mill steam engine that is the only one of its kind in existence, as well as a scientific lab that supports citizen science research about birds, crustaceans, bats, coasts and the area’s archaeology.

Center for New Economy: CNE is one of the most credible, influential and sought-after voices on Puerto Rico’s economy. Founded in 1998 as Puerto Rico’s first think tank, CNE has evolved into a powerful nonpartisan advocate on behalf of the island in policy circles as well as an important participant of diaspora and Latino groups in the U.S. mainland. More than a decade ago, CNE was among the first voices to point out the need to address the island’s deteriorating fiscal situation, restructure the island’s outdated energy utility, and find new and transformative economic strategies for Puerto Rico. The group successfully advocated for the creation of the first Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) legislation on the island, and later on, for the creation of the island’s first energy regulatory framework. More recently, CNE has advocated in US policy circles for the need of debt restructuring mechanisms for the island, as well as for post-Maria disaster aid funding for Puerto Rico.

Theresa BischoffFoundation for a Better Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Trustee TripF E B R U A R Y 2 5 – 2 8 , 2 0 2 0

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Featured Guest Speakers

Miguel (Mike) A. Soto-Class | Tuesday, February 25Miguel A. Soto-Class founded the Center for a New Economy (CNE) in 1998, and since then has steered CNE into becoming one of the most credible and influential voices in Puerto Rico. Beginning in 2014, CNE has been recognized yearly as one of the Top Think-Tanks to Watch by the Global Think-Tank Report of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike has served as member of the Community Innovator’s Lab at MIT in Boston, Massachusetts; the YouthSave Advisory Board at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.; and a Co-Chair of Re-Imagina, the Advisory Commission for a Resilient Puerto Rico. In 2008, he was selected as an Aspen Institute Ideas Fellow.

Mike was an editor of The Economy of Puerto Rico: Restoring Growth, published by the Brookings Institution in 2006 and selected that same year as a Notable Book by the American Library Association. He has been a columnist for El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest circulation daily, since 2003, and was the host of a weekly public radio program on economics for several years.

He is currently the Yale Alumni Schools Director for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Baldwin School of Puerto Rico, Endeavor Puerto Rico, and an Emeritus Member of the Advisory Council for the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.

Mike has a B.A. from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University.

María “Baby” Jaunarena | Wednesday, February 26María “Baby” Jaunarena is Executive Director of Fundación Colibrí, the privately funded nonprofit organization that supports projects and initiatives with potential long-term impact on Puerto Rico’s development and socioeconomic well-being.

María previously served Executive Vice President at Foundation for Puerto Rico, where she led multi-sector engagement efforts and collective impact initiatives aimed at advancing Puerto Rico’s potential as a world-class destination, and the adoption of this strategy to create local socioeconomic development opportunities throughout several communities in Puerto Rico. Prior to managing this ambitious mobilization effort, she served as Advisor on Education, Culture, Recreation and Sports to the Governor of Puerto Rico.

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Her background in the public policy, social service and nonprofit sectors also includes her work as Director of Programs and Focus Areas of Pre-school and Nonprofit Organizational Capacity-Building Initiatives at Fundación Angel Ramos; and as Director of Community Development and Federal Programs with the Aguadilla Municipality. Jaunarena began her career at La Fondita de Jesús, a multi-service drop-in center and transitional housing provider for homeless persons in San Juan where she worked for eight years, four of which she served as Executive Director. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Organizations from the Mandel School at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

Fernando Lloveras San Miguel, Esq. | Wednesday, February 26Fernando Lloveras-San Miguel, Esq. is Executive Director of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico —the leading nature conservation and historic preservation organization in Puerto Rico— and President of its unit, Para la Naturaleza. Under his leadership, the Conservation Trust received the Seal of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission and became the first and only organization from Puerto Rico to be accepted in the International Union for the Conservation ofNature (IUCN).

His work has focused on increasing awareness about Puerto Rico’s nature conservation needs among key decision makers and the public in general, through interpretive experiences, scientific research, strategic alliances and volunteer engagement.

A well-respected member of the conservation community, Mr. Lloveras is also Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he co-chairs the Advancement Committee. In addition, he serves on the board of Directors of the Land Trust Alliance, where he heads the Communications Committee. He is past Vice President of the University of Puerto Rico’s Governing Board. In addition, Mr. Lloveras is also co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Microjuris.com, Inc., the leading Internet provider of legal and legislative information in Latin America.

Mr. Lloveras holds a Magna Cum Laude Juris Doctor from the University of Puerto Rico, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, where he was Senior Fellow. He is a coffee and cattle farmer and spends most of his free time at his farm in Ciales with his wife Michelle Marxuach and his two children.

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Puerto Rico Pre-Trip Reading

HISTORY OF PUERTO RICO

Puerto Rico’s Relationship with the United States?The complicated history of Puerto Rico’s U.S. relations from the end of colonialism to present day. U.S. History Scene. Originally written February 2013; updated July 5th, 2018

The Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Puerto Rican SovereigntyDebates over the Government of Puerto Rico’s jurisdiction and power foreshadow a bigger constitutional battle to come. Slate. June 9th, 2016

POST HURRICANE

Working with Dark LightPuerto Rican artists are healing the spirits that Hurricane Maria broke. Washington Post. February 28th, 2019

BACKGROUND OF DEBT CRISIS

Puerto Rico Declares a Form of BankruptcyBackground on the timeline and repayment options of this historic declaration. The New York Times. May 3rd, 2017

POLITICAL SITUATION

Puerto Rico, The Oldest Colony in the World, Gives the World a Master Class on MobilizationA look into the peaceful protests and unrest during the days before Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation in Puerto Rico. Boston Globe. July 26th, 2019

Puerto Rico Leadership in Turmoil Amid Calls for Ricardo Rosselló to Resign The Rossello Administration’s leaked private group messages have sparked protests in San Juan and outrage across the island. The New York Times. July 14th, 2019

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Puerto Rico Trustee TripF E B R U A R Y 2 5 – 2 8 , 2 0 2 0

READING CONTINUED

ELECTRICITY SYSTEM

The Complicated Evolution of PREPAThe future of Puerto Rico’s power supply is at stake in the transformation of PREPA. Al Día. April 15th, 2019

$3 billion already spent to end longest blackout in US history. Could renewable energy help Puerto Rico? In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Casa Pueblo is a model of how renewable energy could transform Puerto Rico’s infrastructure. USA Today. October 18th, 2018

Puerto Rico’s Seismic ShocksRecent earthquakes and aftershocks in Puerto Rico generate overwhelming evidence of the urgent need for community-directed renewable energy. The North American Congress on Latin America. January 15, 2020

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