Puerto Rico pushes for private power generation amid secrecy
By DÁNICA COTO
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The governing board of Puerto Rico’s power company says it has approved a plan to privatize electric generation in the U.S. territory after meeting for nearly two hours behind closed doors. Thursday’s sole dissenting vote came from the board member that represents the public’s interest. Tomás Torres told The Associated Press that he saw no need for another multimillion contract with a private power company that would only lead to yet another increase in people’s electric bills amid chronic outages. Critics like Torres also oppose the contract given the problems that arose after Puerto Rico’s power company privatized the transmission and distribution of electricity.