{"id":12228,"date":"2018-04-20t18:35:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-20t18:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/how-the-stafford-act-is-challenging-puerto-ricos-energy-recovery\/"},"modified":"2018-04-20t18:35:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20t18:35:43","slug":"how-the-stafford-act-is-challenging-puerto-ricos-energy-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/how-the-stafford-act-is-challenging-puerto-ricos-energy-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"how the stafford act is challenging puerto rico&#8217;s energy recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by hannah wiley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>washington \u2013 the federal emergency management agency will end its efforts to build emergency energy infrastructure in puerto rico by may 18. but because of a federal law that prohibits updating infrastructure, the energy system that fema built is still inadequate for puerto rico\u2019s needs, as wednesday\u2019s island-wide power outage demonstrates.<\/p>\n<p>before wednesday\u2019s blackout, 50,000 customers remained without power, most in the mountainous regions of the island.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>fema intends to hand off the permanent restoration project next month to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aeepr.com\/\">puerto rico electric power authority<\/a>, an agency with a $9 billion debt and insufficient rebuilding plans to ensure a stable grid.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/robert-t-stafford-disaster-relief-and-emergency-assistance-act-public-law-93-288-amended\">robert t. stafford disaster relief and emergency assistance act<\/a> prohibits modernizing equipment with federal funds, saying the money is designated for emergency aid, not long-term improvements. that means the infrastructure projects fema and other federal agencies replaced after hurricane maria are only temporary fixtures that resemble what stood in place before the storm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthe stafford act does not contemplate, as it\u2019s written, rebuilding an electric system,\u201d said bruce walker, electricity delivery and energy reliability assistant secretary at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/\">department of energy<\/a>. \u201cby virtue of the way the stafford act is written, it contemplates things being put back the way that they were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>fema contracted the army corps of engineers for 42 hurricane maria-related assignments, with a budget of $3.4 billion. emergency recovery included installing over 2,000 temporary generators, but only 1,150 have been replaced with permanent power sources and four makeshift micro grids remain in service.<\/p>\n<p>basav sen, climate justice project director at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ips-dc.org\/\">institute for policy studies<\/a>, said congress needs to overhaul the stafford act so that disaster recovery is easier in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cin the short run you could save some money by not improving the infrastructure, but merely restoring it,\u201d sen said. \u201cbut in the longer run, you are not learning lessons. you are not improving the infrastructure to be able to withstand a disaster in the first place and you are setting yourself up to do those same set of repairs in another three years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>sen also said federal agencies should remain as the leaders of rebuilding infrastructure on the island.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthis gesture of saying that the problem is solved before it really is is a way of sweeping it under the rug,\u201d he said. \u201cproclaiming that they are done, mission accomplished, when very clearly you have a problem, that in and of itself is an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>charles alexander, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usace.army.mil\/\">army corps of engineers<\/a>\u2019 director of contingency operations and homeland security, said the temporary power system is better able to withstand a storm than the pre-hurricane system, but a permanent replacement system is outside the bounds of stafford act regulations. it\u2019s also outside the bounds of puerto rico, which has a $73 billion debt and is in the 11th year of a recession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cit\u2019s not the resilient grid that we all recognize is needed, but it\u2019s in much better condition,\u201d alexander said.<\/p>\n<p>alexander said the corps will take on an advisory role to prepa after may 18. a spokesman said the energy department also will offer advice to prepa and the puerto rican government in the recovery process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe want to continue to provide and offer expertise from the department and national labs on ways that they can strengthen the resilience of their grid. we can\u2019t provide bulldozers or cranes or anything, but we can provide expertise and provide studies with our partners over there,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p>at a recent house oversight hearing, rep. jimmy gomez, d-calif., said, \u201ci\u2019m concerned that these are temporary measures, and you guys are leaving. we haven\u2019t fully restored yet, and i hope the transition is adequate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>rep. susan brooks, r-ind, also inquired about plans to prevent further disasters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwhat have we done in preparation for the next hurricane, or what kind of plans do we now have in place, because the plan we had was incredibly frustrating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>jeffrey byard, fema\u2019s associate administrator for response and recovery, told the oversight hearing that the only way to provide funding for permanent energy solutions for puerto rico would be to authorize full federal funding \u2013 which would require changes in the law to avoid violating the stafford act.<\/p>\n<p>even if that happened, walker said, prepa doesn\u2019t have a model of&nbsp;a reliable, organized energy system. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe\u2019re building it for them, but it\u2019s a model that they (should) normally have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>puerto rico&#8217;s island-wide blackout wednesday demonstrates how vulnerable the energy infrastructure remains nearly seven months after the hurricane. how can an entire island still suffer from power volatility?&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9417,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4917,4911],"tags":[179,2837,184,3653],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-12228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-natural-disasters","tag-energy","tag-hurricane","tag-power","tag-puerto-rico"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>how the stafford act is challenging puerto rico&#039;s energy recovery - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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