Former Puerto Rico House Speaker José Aponte called on New Fortress Energy (NFE) to immediately reimburse Puerto Rico for diesel fuel that power plants have been forced to burn over the past week due to a stalled liquefied natural gas (LNG) delivery. The switch to costlier diesel has affected generating units at San Juan and Palo Seco, plus emergency generators system-wide.
An NFE vessel, the Amur River, is currently stalled at sea amid a dispute with the San Juan Bay Pilots. Aponte said NFE and Genera Puerto Rico share responsibility, alleging the companies knowingly tried to use the Amur River despite it not meeting berth requirements for San Juan Bay channels — something NFE denies. He said coordinating LNG shipments on such a vessel takes months, not days, and accused NFE of withholding information and manufacturing a crisis to pressure regulators into allowing unauthorized ships.
Aponte warned that navigating such vessels through San Juan Bay poses a security risk to a port that handles more than 85 percent of goods entering Puerto Rico, saying, "We cannot allow late compliance to become an emergency for Puerto Rico."