Environmental Groups Sue FEMA for Focusing on Fossil Fuels in Puerto Rico's Grid Rebuild

A coalition of environmental and community groups in Puerto Rico, alongside the Center for Biological Diversity, is suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reportedly prioritizing fossil fuel power generation at the expense of renewables in a huge project to rebuild the territory’s power grid.

“Fossil fuel power plants produce pollutants that poison our health and kill our neighbors, and other living beings that live nearby,” said Victor Alvarado Guzman of Comite Dialogo Ambiental. “The toxins produced by these facilities also harm the air, water, and land. That’s why the funds from agencies such as FEMA must be used toward renewable energy, especially rooftop solar.”

The lawsuit, filed on April 11 in Washington D.C, argues that FEMA failed to consider renewable distributed energy generation technology solutions such as rooftop solar and battery storage in developing plans to help communities power themselves, despite the islands’s barely-functioning electrical grid left in shambles after the territory’s devastation by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and Fiona in 2022.

The suit also alleges that FEMA violated federal law by not properly considering the environmental harm that would be caused by rebuilding Puerto Rico’s fossil fuel energy infrastructure instead of using federal dollars to secure sustainable, renewable power generation capabilities for the territory.

“The direction promoted by FEMA and the state government to restore the outdated and polluting electrical infrastructure in Puerto Rico is contrary to the need to mitigate and adapt to climate change,” said Federico Cintrón Moscoso, program director of El Puente de Williamsburg’s Latino Climate Action Network in Puerto Rico. “It extends the life of fossil fuels and halts any progress toward renewable energy.