Trump just refused to provide immediate aid
for Puerto Rico
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Trump has
been criticized for being more concerned about football players lack of
patriotism than he is about the devastation impacting the lives of thousands in
Puerto Rico.
Of course, Trump claims the
government, mostly through FEMA, is doing everything it can, but those on the
ground – including the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo A. Rosselló – disagree.
Today
was even more discouraging after the Trump administration officials said they
would get around to asking Congress for more money to help Puerto Rico
somewhere around the middle of next month, insisting they have resources
needed to help now.
However,
the reality is that after hurricanes in Texas and Florida, FEMA is already
stretched thin, in terms of resources and money to help victims. The
resources that are arriving are being hindered because of damage to the ports
and airports where it has to be received, so the problems and delays are
mounting.
Is
Trump really doing all he can?
Some see a different game being played with human lives as pawns of those who want to use the tragedy to do a huge business deal, the takeover of the publicly owned power company serving the entire island.
For
several years, there has been an effort to force Puerto Rico to privatize its
public utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), whose
executive leaders had warned in advance of the storm that they could face a
difficult situation.
That
is because the average age of the power plants there is about 44 years, far
older than most American plants; and the utility is suffering under a debt of
over $8 billion at a time there is an outflow of population (taxpayers) due to
economic problems that existed even before the storm hit.
Normally,
a privatization of PREPA or any part of it would be a slow cumbersome process
requiring multiple government and agency approvals at many levels.
However,
there is a law called Act 76 passed in 2000 by Puerto Rico’s legislature which,
according to The Intercept, “allows
governmental bodies to bypass certain permitting processes during a state of
emergency.”
“It also allows the governor to ‘amend, revoke regulations and orders, and rescind or resolve agreements, contract, or any part of them’ so long as the state of emergency is in effect.”
In
other words, the longer Trump stalls, and people suffer, the better it is for
the private companies that have been longing to take over power generation in
PR for years.
Rosselló
actually invoked Act 76 this past January, declaring the power infrastructure
there so bad it was a “state of emergency.”
Complicating
things is the on-going financial crisis. Puerto Rico’s financial problems got
so bad by last year, an oversight board was created by an act of the U.S.
Congress that essentially is over the local island authorities.
“Politically speaking, this crisis is the direct result of Puerto Rico’s colonial status,” wrote The Week this past March. “It has no representation in Congress, no electoral votes, and does not enjoy the legal protections of statehood. As a result, Congress has yanked it around based on the whims of the mainland, often forgetting all about it for decades.”
As
a result, the decision on privatization may be made without direct approval
from the governor or anyone else in authority on the island.
“There are interests who were already knocking on Congress’s door to take on the issue of PREPA.” reports The Intercept. “When you have a body like the board, that is only accountable to Congress, companies, and individuals that want to invest in Puerto Rico aren’t going to lobby the government of Puerto Rico,” Deepak Lamba-Nieves, research director for a Puerto Rican think tank. “They’re going to lobby Congress.”
One
of those behind the effort to privatize is Bill Cooper, who was recruited by
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who heads the Congressional committee with oversight
of Puerto Rico. Cooper was the head of a trade association for natural gas.
Cooper
is pushing for Puerto Rico to create a new special port that can handle natural
gas, which he says would replace the current oil-fired plants.
This
is much more complicated, of course, with other economic and business
considerations.
However,
what is getting lost is the humanitarian tragedy on the island, which did not
end with the storm. In fact, that only began a new phase, leaving people there
without shelter, energy, communications or food.
There
is no absolute proof Trump and his administration are dragging their feet or
conspiring to privatize the island’s industry, but there are reasons to be
concerned at the least and suspicious of their motives in the worst case
scenarios.
Some are already calling Puerto Rico’s
situation “Trump’s Katrina,” a reference to the angry, unhappy
reactions to the aftermath of the devastating hurricane that hit New Orleans,
and left years of despair and rebuilding in its wake.
For
once, Trump needs to step up and help these people to prove he isn’t just a
tool of big money interests.
Or
he can keep going the way he is going and Trump will prove once again he is a
tool of big money interests, and everyone else can be damned.
“How will history remember Donald Trump’s response to the serial disasters that flattened U.S. territories and hemispheric friend in the Caribbean?” muses The Daily Beast. “How will it record a president who with his party dismisses climate change as a hoax, whose sympathies come by tweet, and who spends the days of devastation for American territories largely populated by black and brown citizens, preening in Alabama?”
Based
on history, the answer is we all need to be deeply concerned for the American
citizens in Puerto Rico, which is the entire population of the island, and for
all the others affected by the storms.
The history of privatization in America is not that it leads to lower costs and better service, but rather to higher costs and uneven service, while those who get the public assets on the cheap inevitably become much richer in the process.
Sounds
like Trump’s friends, doesn’t it?