Hello, and welcome to the home page of Collin Roberts’s final project for HIST 108: U.S. Colonial Empire. Over the semester, I’ve been following news out of Puerto Rico related to its ongoing energy crisis, specifically federal aid delays, chronic outages, and conflict over renewable energy targets. Perhaps the most self-evident trend to have emerged is how far these issues are shaped by Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship and economic reliance on the United States. Federal officials like FEMA and the Department of Energy coordinate rebuilding after Hurricane Maria, but political stalling, oversight boards, and shifting priorities have kept billions in aid from arriving in the hands of those who need it.

On this interactive website, I point out U.S. historical dominance over the energy infrastructure in Puerto Rico. I’m particularly interested in investigating how the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) became a symbol of that dominance throughout its debt crisis and privatization. I also point out how the U.S.-appointed boards such as the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) limit the sovereignty of the Puerto Rican state and control over this vital industry. I will link these historical events to the contemporary push and pull of the pressure for renewable energy initiatives and fossil fuel reliance, and how political options, such as efforts to take away renewable energy goals, are an extension of a long colonial trend of putting foreign interests above local needs. Altogether, these lines of sight will prove the energy crisis does not revolve around storms or infrastructure alone, but it’s also an image of colonial mechanisms still operating on the economy and the power apparatus in Puerto Rico.