A federal judge approved an emergency $300 million loan that will keep Puerto Rico’s troubled electric utility in operation, averting a threat of more power outages at a time when the island is trying to recover from last summer’s devastating hurricanes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Laura Taylor Swain of U.S. District Court in New York yesterday signed off on the loan from the island’s central government. Her decision comes days after she rejected the funding for the utility, known as PREPA, saying the cash-strapped power utility hadn’t looked hard enough for alternative funding before seeking court approval of a loan. PREPA, which had sought approval to tap $550 million of a proposed $1 billion financing package, is in desperate need of funding to maintain restoration work on the island’s power grid and to prevent additional blackouts.
