Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:<\/p>\n
Why Puerto Rico is still without power, and will be for a long time<\/a>.\u00a0 Money quotes:<\/span>
\n\u201cThe Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, is unable to complete the task of restoring power on its own: It is bankrupt, just like the Puerto Rican government . . .<\/span>
\n\u201cMaria delivered a near-knockout blow to PREPA, which was in deep crisis before any storm hit. For many years, it was unable, or unwilling, to invest in its four-decade-old power plants, which still burn imported oil, and above-ground power lines that were vulnerable to storms. Rolling blackouts and brownouts become common . . .<\/span>
\n\u201cPREPA struggled with a multi-billion-dollar deficit and a worker shortage \u2014 all while charging some of the highest rates in the United States. The utility relies on its own cash reserves to operate, and has no access to capital markets, a shortfall that is expected to worsen as its revenue collections cease during the power outage . . .<\/span>
\n\u201cOnce the damage assessment is done, PREPA, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S Department of Energy and the APPA, can send workers and equipment to the island to help . . .<\/span>
\nOddly, the article fails to mention WHY the government is bankrupt.\u00a0 It\u2019s an island paradise, tourism is strong, where did the money go?\u00a0 Bad luck?\u00a0 Hurricanes?\u00a0 Trump?<\/span>
\nNo, they pissed it all away<\/a> through the usual Blue State shenanigans:\u00a0 social programs, cronyism, and union benefits for government workers.\u00a0 And you\u2019re going to pay for it.\u00a0 It’ll be the largest bailout to date, and it’ll be snuck through as emergency assistance, including loans that will never be repaid, grants, and just look in the fine print and the back pages and total up the amounts that\u00a0will be tacked on for public art, ecological impact studies, culture and race equity assessments and payouts, etc.<\/span>
\nThose poor children, suffering, how can you refuse to help?\u00a0 You should be happy to pay for a better Puerto Rico.\u00a0 And once you’ve paid for them, how can you refuse to pay for Chicago? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nJoe Doakes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Never waste a crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Why Puerto Rico is still without power, and will be for a long time.\u00a0 Money quotes: \u201cThe Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, is unable to complete the task of restoring power on its own: It is bankrupt, just like the Puerto Rican government . . . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64611,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64604\/revisions\/64611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}