Ritzy hotels and luxury restaurants are sprouting up along Puerto Rico’s white-sand beaches and crystalline waters. Hedge fund executives and crypto exiles are moving in, lured by lucrative tax breaks. But it’s the hum of privately owned generators that make those lifestyles possible, and shield this set of the island’s inhabitants from the reality experienced by the vast majority. Puerto Rico’s aging and fragile power company was already bankrupt and in desperate need of repair when Hurricane Maria tore across the island in 2017. The storm caused more than $90 billion worth of damage and knocked out electricity in some areas for almost a year. Since then, the management of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa, has been put into private hands, but problems persist, Bloomberg News reported. Blackouts — even on sunny days — are depressingly common, and the island typically has the most expensive electricity of any US jurisdiction but Hawaii and Alaska. The power woes are an additional burden on an island where 40% of the population lives in poverty and an affordability crisis has deepened, thanks in part because of the influx of wealthy residents. Real gross national product is still below 2016 levels amid hurricanes, earthquakes and mismanagement. It’s expected to shrink again this year, despite an influx of $120 billion in federal reconstruction aid. Meanwhile, pension payments and debt service take up 25% of the commonwealth’s budget even after bankruptcy.
