New York’s Mamdani and Hochul promise new day for Puerto Rico after midterms

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul pledged more support for Puerto Rico Friday as he remains mired in multiple crises, saying during a trip to the island that Democrats’ landslide victory in the U.S. midterm elections would be a boon for the American territory.

“There is potential where we can finally start to deliver results for the working class across this country,” Mamdani said. “What we heard today is that what is often described as a natural crisis here in Puerto Rico is actually a political crisis, a crisis that is the result of political choices.”

Hochul said the election results represented “a whole new day” for Puerto Rico and warned that the federal government would be held accountable.

“What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is really an abandonment of that commitment,” she said. “And we hope that all of these wounds will heal, ensuring that we continue to bring resources for resilience, energy projects, grid building, as well as health care recovery and nutrition programs.

Mamdani and Hochul are among a group of New York government officials who are in Puerto Rico for a four-day annual conference. They met with local nonprofits Friday as officials announced a $280,000 partnership to help the island deal with emergencies.

Puerto Rico struggles to emerge from the crisis

The partnership between the Hispanic Federation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York comes as Puerto Rico grapples with chronic problems. power outages and intermittent water shortage while he tries to rebuild from Hurricane Maria and other disasters.

The nonprofit Hispanic Federation said the money would equip 10 community-run resilience centers across the island with increased water storage capacity; some would also receive rain harvesting systems, kitchen infrastructure and solar power with battery storage.

“We need to start working with leaders to ensure that Puerto Rico’s agenda is not forgotten,” Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, told the Associated Press.

“In Puerto Rico, there are still enormous challenges ahead,” he said. “All public policies have been very detrimental to Puerto Rico.”

This announcement comes a few months after the administration of US President Donald Trump. solar projects canceled in Puerto Rico, expected to help thousands of low-income families. One project, worth $400 million, would have seen the installation of solar and battery storage systems in low-income homes and those with medical needs.

The U.S. Department of Energy said money originally earmarked for solar projects would instead be used to help maintain Puerto Rico’s crumbling power grid, which was flattened by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The grid, however, was already weakened due to a lack of maintenance and investment.

The decisions aroused indignation on the island like Federal support for solar projects fades.

Puerto Ricans sue US government

Last week, six Puerto Rico residents sued the U.S. Department of Energy and its Secretary, Chris Wright, over the abandonment of a $1 billion, federally funded program aimed at providing solar power and battery storage to those who needed it most.

“The cost of such systems remains out of reach for the majority of Puerto Ricans,” the lawsuit states.

Among those suing is Arecibo resident Ileana Ríos, 63, who is diabetic and needs to refrigerate her insulin. Meanwhile, her son has asthma and must use a nebulizer, which requires electricity.

The lawsuit notes that Ríos “regularly loses power when the weather is stable and always loses power during storms, sometimes for several weeks at a time.”

Other residents who filed the lawsuit also suffer from serious health problems and need electrically powered equipment or medications.

The lawsuit asks, among other things, that a judge order the U.S. Department of Energy to reinstate the subsidy program. The agency said in a brief statement Friday that it was working closely with Puerto Rico’s governor to stabilize the island’s power grid, while criticizing the previous administration for “advancing its new green scam agenda by helping Puerto Rico build an affordable, reliable and secure power grid.”

The loss of funding was a blow to nonprofits and others who faced months of uncertainty and confusion while awaiting the Trump administration’s decision on whether and how to continue the program.

“We had a lot of uncertainty… At times it just felt like we weren’t talking to anyone,” said Sybelle Rodriguez del Valle, director of energy resilience operations for the nonprofit Barrio Eléctrico, which was part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s program.

Barrio Eléctrico provides electric service to more than 500 families and was poised to provide resilient energy to 1,200 families using federal program funds. It had only completed about a third of its projects before the program ended, losing an estimated $16 million to $20 million in funding.

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Associated Press journalist Gabriela Aoun Angueira contributed to this report.