Representatives of several environmental and civic organizations denounced a lack of government transparency around a proposed natural gas pipeline, dusting off the banners they used in 2005 and 2009 to raise their voices again. Juan Camacho, spokesperson for Toabajeños en Defensa del Ambiente, said they want things done the right way: if a pipeline must be built, they are willing to sit down, take the relevant preventive measures and set plans so that people can participate, but he lamented that this is not how things work in Puerto Rico.
The project, named the Freedom Connection Project, would initially bring natural gas from the San Juan power plant to the Palo Seco plant in Toa Baja, and would eventually seek to connect to Guayanilla and San Juan. Gabriel Meléndez of El Puente PR noted that Genera spokesperson Iván Báez has said the optimal scenario is a coastal ring of gas pipelines.
Highlighting community environmental risk, the critics said the argument that technology has advanced greatly since the last pipeline proposal is not acceptable. They also said they still remember the aftermath of fuel-related disasters, such as the CAPECO explosion. They stated the initial proposal is around $47 million, to be financed by the federal Department of Energy and overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers through a contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.