Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández, who represents Puerto Rico in Washington D.C., said Governor Jenniffer González Colón should remove Energy czar Josué Colón Ortiz and Family Department secretary Suzanne Roig Fuertes. "No se puede sustentar la permanencia de funcionarios de escándalos en escándalos," he said, arguing that neither should remain in their post. On Colón Ortiz, Hernández said his account conflicts with documents made public about Power Expectations.
He noted that suspicions of fraud in the awarding of the contract went nearly two months without reaching the authorities and surfaced through the press. If it is true that Colón Ortiz kept them from the governor, Hernández said, the situation is unacceptable, and it falls to the House of Representatives to examine the evidence and make any appropriate referrals.
On energy, Hernández blamed the collapse of the temporary contract for the current blackouts and load shedding, tracing the problem to handing generation to a single company. He criticized New Fortress Energy’s weight in the natural gas supply and called for opening the port to other sources, tighter control of conflicts of interest, and putting the public interest first in future public-private partnerships.
He said that from Washington he is working on oversight of federal funds, more money for the power grid and help from Department of Energy technicians, and acknowledged poor coordination among LUMA, Genera and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). On Roig Fuertes, he said the string of complaints against the agency has cost her the credibility to continue.
He added that Washington’s attention is now on the midterm elections, but that accumulating scandals in Puerto Rico harm its image before Congress.