Waiting, Often in the Dark, for Frozen E.P.A. Funds
To keep the lights on in her residential mental health clinic outside of San Juan, Liomarie Oyola Pérez needs money.
Ms. Oyola Pérez and her staff already go to extraordinary lengths during the blackouts that have become increasingly common in Puerto Rico, juggling three generators or waiting hours in line to get gas to power them. Her facility has solar panels, but she wants to add batteries that would store energy for use when the sun isn't shining. For that, she needs a loan.
This year, her lender was awarded millions through a federal program that would provide low-interest loans to candidates like Ms. Oyola Pérez.
But the money is frozen, part of $20 billion committed to finance climate and clean energy projects that was abruptly halted at the request of the Trump administration. Several nonprofit groups that were promised funds have sued; a court hearing is scheduled for Monday.
At stake is funding for projects across the United States meant to assist people like Ms. Oyola Pérez and reduce their energy costs while also cutting the pollution that is driving climate change. They range from efforts to add geothermal energy to affordable housing in Iowa to energy efficiency upgrades for a senior housing community in Massachusetts.
Nationwide, the federal program could finance enough new solar arrays to power up to 2.2 million homes by 2031, according to a recent analysis from Energy Innovation, a research organization, and the University of New Hampshire.
For months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to claw back the money, which had been authorized by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration.
Since taking office, Lee Zeldin, the agency's administrator, has repeatedly called the money a 'green slush fund' and said it was vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse, though the agency has failed to produce evidence backing up those claims, despite a judge's request.
On the ground in Puerto Rico, 38 credit unions are waiting for $147 million committed under the program, which is known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. They estimate it would support 88,000 solar, electric-vehicle and energy efficiency projects by 2030.
Contrary to Mr. Zeldin's claims, these loans are vetted, supplemented by private capital and, for many recipients, are simply about keeping the lights on.
When the electricity flickers off inside a mental health clinic run by Ms. Oyola Pérez, the staff follow a protocol: First, they wait two hours to see if the power comes back. Then, they fire up a gas-powered generator, then a second, then a third. If the outage persists, someone has to go wait in line for more gas, sometimes for hours.
Inside the cheerful single-story building, where 22 residents include her aunt, her 106-year-old grandmother, and a shot-putter who competed in the 2023 Berlin Special Olympics, Ms. Oyola Pérez was clear about her long-term goal for avoiding blackouts.
'The plan is to stay off the grid,' she said.
Leaving the island's notoriously rickety electric grid is the dream for many in Puerto Rico. Two large-scale blackouts have hit the island in the last six months, and the average resident lost power eight times last year. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, many homes were without electricity for months.
Even without the threat of storms, local officials have warned that the power supply will not be sufficient to meet peak demand this summer. At the same time, Puerto Ricans have the fourth-highest electricity costs in the nation.
The E.P.A. declined to comment for this article, citing a policy against discussing pending litigation.
It took a six-year search for Ms. Oyola Pérez to find a loan with an affordable monthly payment to install the $75,000 panels for her solar system. After seeing an advertisement at Costco, she found a cooperativa, or a local credit union owned by community members, that could help. She installed the panels in 2023 and the savings on her electric bill now cover the full cost of her $697 monthly payments. In about 13 years, she would own the system outright.
But the power outages haven't stopped.
Solar Lenders Left Waiting
Credicentro-Coop, one of the biggest cooperativa solar lenders in Puerto Rico, was slated to receive $5.5 million in federal funds to expand its efforts under the now-frozen grant program.
'We are a living example of the benefits of the transition to clean energy,' said Miguel Ortiz Santos, executive president of the cooperativa, as he showed off solar arrays that shade two parking lots and power 80 percent of its office and branch building.
Credicentro-Coop was promised the E.P.A. funds in February through the national credit union network Inclusiv, which was awarded a total of $1.87 billion from the E.P.A.
Sitting in his office, flanked by a large collection of colorful Three Kings figurines, Mr. Ortiz Santos rattled off his credit union's statistics. More than 90 percent of members live in low-income areas. Most home solar loans hover around $25,000, and a household's typical monthly payment is $260 to $280. Cooperativa lenders throughout the program plan to use the federal funds to offer green loans at rates as low as 2 or 3 percent, a significant discount on market rates.
Credicentro-Coop, which worked with Ms. Oyola Pérez on her first solar loan, sends staff members to inspect each installed system. It withholds the last 10 percent of each installer's payment until the homeowner confirms that the system is working. Loan officers check applicants' solar plans against past electric utility invoices, sometimes recommending that customers buy fewer panels.
The credit union's default rate on green energy loans is about half of 1 percent, which is lower than the national average commercial bank default rate across all loan categories last year.
This is the kind of green lending Congress intended to support when it passed the Inflation Reduction Act. The initiative was intended to attract an influx of private investment and make financing for clean energy projects less risky for lenders and more affordable for borrowers.
Frozen Funds
By the time Credicentro-Coop's $5.5 million award was publicly announced, Inclusiv's funding had already been frozen, without any explanation from the E.P.A. or the bank where the money was held.
Mr. Zeldin began drawing attention to the $20 billion in climate funds soon after he entered office. He linked them to a hidden-camera video taken in the final weeks of the Biden administration and produced by the right-wing group Project Veritas, which is known for trying to embarrass political opponents with covert recordings. In the video, an E.P.A. employee likened last-minute efforts to spend federal money to tossing 'gold bars' off the Titanic.
Most of the money was held in accounts at Citibank when President Trump took office, and Mr. Zeldin called for its return to the federal government. Citibank froze the funds at the administration's request, prompting several nonprofit groups, including Inclusiv, to sue.
Despite investigations by the Department of Justice, the F.B.I. and the E.P.A.'s acting inspector general, no evidence of waste or fraud has materialized to substantiate Mr. Zeldin's concerns. The E.P.A. has also argued that it can cancel the grants because the agency's priorities have changed.
Mr. Zeldin has criticized 'extreme lack of qualifications' among the nonprofit groups, arguing that they are unprepared to distribute the funds. But some cooperativas, including Credicentro-Coop, have been financing solar systems for Puerto Rican homeowners and small businesses for the last 10 years.
With the funding he was promised, Mr. Ortiz Santos estimates he could finance solar power for 500 households, offering low interest loans. A 6.95 percent rate might come down to 3.95 percent, for example, reducing monthly payments.
'The lower the payment, the more people qualify,' he said.
On the southern coast of the island in the beach town of Salinas, Wanda Ríos Colorado, the president of a neighborhood association, was sitting at a local cooperativa, SaliCoop, counting the days until hurricane season and wondering if she could get solar systems installed for 50 residents on a waiting list before the storms.
She pulled out her phone to show a picture of flooding in her own home after Hurricane Fiona in 2022. The water crept up the legs of her sofa.
Over the years, Ms. Ríos Colorado's neighborhood had been promised financial aid for solar power from various government agencies, but some grants had been canceled by the Trump administration and others had failed to materialize. Her hopes now rested on an affordable loan.
'We cannot stop,' she said, 'and the only choice we have right now is the green bank.'
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