Jenniffer González Colón was sworn in as Puerto Rico’s new governor amid popular anger over a power outage that hit the US territory a few days ago, according to AP News.
González, a Republican who supported President-elect Donald Trump and whose New Progressive Party won a historic third consecutive term after the November 5 election, pledged to stabilise the Caribbean island’s crumbling power grid.
What better than to come first to thank God and to ask God to give me the wisdom, the fortitude and the tools to fulfill everything I promised the people of Puerto Rico.
She also promised to appoint an energy “czar” to examine potential contract violations. The island is considering a possible replacement for Luma Energy, the private company that controls transmission and distribution of electricity in Puerto Rico. However, no contract can be cancelled without prior approval from Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau and the federal control board overseeing the island’s finances.
Outages were still being reported on Thursday as crews tried to stabilise the power grid following a blackout that occurred early Tuesday morning, leaving 1.3 million customers in the dark on New Year’s Eve. According to Luma Energy, more than 600,000 temporarily went without power on New Year’s Eve when part of the system collapsed again.
Like other governors in the party, González said she would push for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state. However, such a change would require an approval of both the US Congress and the US president. A non-binding referendum held during the 5 November election asked voters to choose among three options: statehood, independence and independence with free association.
Statehood received more than 615,000 votes, or 59 per cent, whereas independence came second for the first time with more than 309,000 votes, or 29 per cent. Independence with free association secured over 128,000 votes, or 12 per cent. The turnout for the referendum totalled 63 per cent.
