Puerto Rico Will Stop Burning Coal Next Year

Allison Cox
I think eliminating coal-burning plants is an environmentally-friendly idea for the planet overall.
The idea of transitioning the world to green habits is a fantastic idea, and I think the United
States is finally getting on board. We are seeing many changes across the world that are
environmental changes from electric vehicles to paper straws.

Lindsey Cabanas:
Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act has a long term plan to get rid of “non-renewable energy
by 2050”. This is absolutely a step in the right direction. The boldness and speed of this plan is
admirable. This bold approach should be adopted by other countries.

Lorena Zamora Matos:

I agree with Lindsey and Allison, this in fact sounds fantastic if it were genuine and with good
intentions. I wonder how a country that barely survived Hurricane Maria, and the island is still
recovering despite receiving over $20 billions of the tax-payers’ money can do such an
incredible thing. To directly express my concern, if a company wants to invest in Puerto Rico, by
all means do so as fast as possible, but let’s not add any extra retribution to the working class. If
going from 2% to 40 is something that PJ Wilson can do, then congratulations, but let’s keep the
expectations real. 40% is a huge number even for the greatest country in the world, aka United
States of America.

Brian Evans
This is a short article, but it covers a lot of ground. Five years ago, if you lived outside of
California, you heard little about renewable. Now it’s the norm. 40% in five years is a BIG
challenge, but there are government incentives that will help Puerto Rico reach its goal. It’s not
going to be cheap and that’s a challenge for Puerto Rico. It’s going to be a big political
challenge. The president supports coal, but as we know, him and Puerto Rico doesn't have the
best of relationships. My guess is Puerto Rico will install solar and battery storage. The land
will be an issue. Fixed tilts solar systems need the right angles to the sun and system that track
the sun are expensive. Renewable energy is sexy. Everyone love the sound of it. However, the
casualty of going green is that many long term good paying jobs are lost and replaced with
temporary low skilled and low paying jobs. The folks that work at these coal fired plants make
good money to support their families (and their economy). However, they will be casualties of
change. All the coal fired plants in the United States have spent millions of dollars for filtering
systems that allow their plants to filter out the bad stuff and meet EPA requirements, but
unfortunately, that’s not going to be good enough for our society. Just look at how “green” not
just “clean” we are being pushed in this class.

Avni Patel:
After reading the article, for sure I agree with my classmates on here. It does sound incredible
how Puerto Rico has taken up this risky project just to keep the country safe. Not many countries
are able to take action against pollutions and support in keeping the environment clean. Puerto
Rico is planning of not having non-renewable energy sources by the year 2050. It is interesting
that in about 5 years, Puerto Rico will move from 2% to 40% of its renewable sources. That
would be the biggest challenge the energy sources industry would be facing. Thinking of all the
financial situation and political situation this will be interesting. It is important for everyone to
understand and acknowledge the serious threat against the environment.

Jamarius Willis
I think this was a very interesting article because I’m serious about going green. I can only
imagine the magnitude of this if southern states in the united states tried methods similar to
California and Puerto Rico in this instance. It sucks that in most cases it takes natural disasters
happening for people to finally wake up and say “hey we need to take care of the environment”.
This is a dramatic change for puerto rico but well needed. I'm curious to see how the project goes
10 years from now. When it comes to renewable energy here at Disney most of our parks are
powered by a large farm of solar panels.

Anthony Randazzo:
Similar to my network, I too see the Puerto Rico project as a risky step in the right direction.
This “sexy” sustainability tactic will be successful and more importantly will start a trend. Not
every country has the space and resources to implement bold plans but eventually will.