After a year marked by major power outages, high-profile resignations by public officials and widespread protests in the streets of Puerto Rico, the Biden administration is responding to calls from residents to help the U.S. territory quickly transition to renewable energy.
Biden has pledged to align more than $12 billion in federal aid earmarked to repair Puerto Rico’s tattered electrical grid and boost its struggling economy with the goals of the territory’s landmark 2019 clean energy law, according to an agreement reached by the administration and the Puerto Rican government in February.
The law requires that 100 percent of the territory’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2050. The legislation also sets ambitious benchmarks along the way, including 40 percent renewable energy by 2025 and 60 percent by 2040.
Environmentalists celebrated the…