Puerto Rico to privatize power generation amid outages
By DANICA COTO
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s government says it plans to privatize electricity generation, a first for a U.S. territory facing chronic power outages as it struggles to rebuild a crumbling electric grid. The move announced Sunday marks the beginning of the end for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, a behemoth long accused of corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency that holds $9 billion in public debt — the largest of any government agency. Many Puerto Ricans are wary of the announcement, given that serious complaints about the length of power outages, costly power bills and other issues arose after the island’s government privatized the transmission and distribution of power in June 2021.