SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO—Discover Puerto Rico, the island’s destination marketing organization (DMO), has revealed that January-April 2019 occupancy spending reached $373.6 million, the highest in the past eight years, and an increase of 12.4% when compared to 2017 pre-hurricane Maria levels, according to STR and the AirDNA Monthly Trend Report, January-April, 2019. The island’s lodging… read more
By Luis Valentin Ortiz, Reuters SAN JUAN (Reuters) – Puerto Rico’s federally created fiscal oversight board on Monday imposed a fiscal 2020 budget on the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth that for the first time limits spending choices by its government, according to the board’s executive director. FILE PHOTO: Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello speaks during a… read more
By Eva Lloréns Vélez, Caribbean Business SAN JUAN — After the head of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa), José Ortiz, said he would submit the utility’s integrated resource plan to the Energy Bureau (PREB) by May 31, he has requested an extension until Friday. On Wednesday, the regulator granted Prepa’s request as well… read more
By Nicole Acevedo, NBC News Puerto Rico residents, who already pay almost twice as much for electricity as U.S. customers, are facing a 13 percent spike under an agreement government officials made to repay bondholders who own the debt of the island’s bankrupt power authority. The average residential household in Puerto Rico would start seeing… read more
By Ashley Hackett, Pacific Standard When Amanda Y. Feliciano Bonilla was growing up, she never imagined leaving her home island of Puerto Rico. Raised in what she calls “the projects” of Guaynabo, a low-income area surrounded by wealth, Bonilla takes pride in the person she’s become and in the community she calls home. Unfortunately, she… read more
By Molly Schwartz, The New York Times For nearly a year after rain stopped falling on Puerto Rico, the island was without full power. For months, thousands of businesses closed and did not reopen. And for nearly as long, internet was scarce. So when Emmanuel Oquendo and Israel Figueroa Fontánez found connectivity along a central… read more
By John Bowden, The Hill President Trump on Tuesday blasted politicians in Puerto Rico, calling them incompetent while saying the “best thing” that ever happened for the island is “President Donald J. Trump.” In a pair of tweets, which came just hours after the Senate rejected dueling disaster aid proposals on Monday amid a fight… read more
By Kelsey Snell, NPR There are few things Democrats and Republicans in Congress usually agree on, but one of them is rushing federal money to victims of natural disasters. That sentiment crumbled this week when the Senate failed to advance two separate disaster funding bills. Both included bipartisan funding to help relieve damage across the… read more
By: Peter Asmus, Forbes In the past, government support for microgrids has been fragmented, often hodge-podge collections of regulations, standards, and public policy. With the extreme weather events hitting the US over the past 8 years, states—as well as Puerto Rico—have enacted new programs designed to bolster grid resilience through microgrids. What can the world… read more
By Adrian Florido, NPR César Díaz felt lucky that only a couple of leaks had sprung in his ceiling, even though Hurricane Maria tore the zinc panels off much of his roof. His real troubles began about a year after the storm, when a crew hired by Puerto Rico’s housing department showed up to make… read more