The news stopped following Puerto Rico some years ago, but that doesn't mean that anything has improved.

Let's start with a reminder of how we got to this place..

Hurricane Maria caused the utter collapse of Puerto Rico’s power grid and the worst electrical blackout ever in the United States — one of the longest blackouts in the history of our planet. One month after Maria, 88 percent of the island remained without electrical power. Even after four months, roughly 450,000 households still had no electricity.

Now, five years later, with Hurricane Fiona, there was no such collapse of tens of thousands of utility poles, since Fiona was only a Category 1 storm. However, LUMA Energy — the privatized electric company tasked with improving the island’s energy reliability —failed to deliver electricity to 100 percent of the population: all 3 million people. Even hospitals lost electricity.

Also, since many water pumps need public electricity to operate, four days after the hurricane, more than 600,000 households remain without tap water. More than 60 percent of the of the population still doesn’t have electricity.

LUMA has repeatedly failed to distribute electricity. In 2020, the government of Puerto Rico contracted the management of its power grid to this secretive company. In June 2021, almost 1 million households lost electricity. In April 2022, half the population on the island lost electricity. Restaurant chains sued for $310 million in losses.

Puerto Rico has completely privatized their energy system, despite paying $12 Billion.
Besides providing worse service, they are also charging much higher prices.

Hundreds of people including religious leaders, economists, teachers and retirees on Wednesday protested a proposed increase to already high electric bills that a growing number of people in the U.S. territory are struggling to pay.

The crowd marched toward the governor’s mansion, where they hoisted Puerto Rican flags up high and held up signs warning that an increase in power bills would lead to an unsustainable rise in the island’s already expensive cost of living.

The proposed increase is part of a debt restructuring plan to pull Puerto Rico’s power company out of bankruptcy, an effort that has failed multiple times as bondholders threaten to sue to recuperate their investments. If approved, the current residential rate of 25 cents per kilowatt hour would nearly double over the span of 30 years.

So you'd think that this would go over well with the vultures on Wall Street. But you'd be wrong. You see, these guys are the victims.

"To be clear, I've decided to resign because I do not wish to be part of the [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] deal that is unfair, coercive and discriminatory," Peterson wrote. The board "is essentially wiping out bondholders while keeping pensions fully intact. This is wrong."