Bad Bunny Highlights Puerto Rico Power Outages

It was something a lot of folks might not have gotten, but Meteorologist Ryann Jones of KXAS Dallas Ft Worth made the right connection immediately during the Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance (below), when the set featured workers on power poles.
Bad Bunny’s home in Puerto Rico has been increasingly exposed to more and more extreme storms and hurricanes, like Maria in 2017, that have battered the island’s power system and highlighted the need for more resilient and distributed energy system.

NPR:

Benito used it to send a message to the world from atop a flickering Luma light post. Luma Energy is the private Puerto Rican power company responsible for maintaining the power infrastructure for the entire island, though its name has become synonymous with power outages. One of the bleaker parts of Puerto Rican life right now, Bad Bunny used it as a vehicle for his message of pride — showing once again that even the worst experiences of Puerto Rican life can feel like the stuff of legend.

Above, images of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Below, in typical inspirational, aspirational style, President Trump responded.

New York Times October 18, 2021:

 Four years after Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico’s electrical grid a shambles and the entire island in the dark, residents had expected their fragile power system to be stronger now. Instead, unreliable electricity remains frustratingly common, hindering economic development and daily life.

In June, a private consortium known as LUMA Energy took over the transmission and distribution of electricity. And yet the situation has only worsened. Surging demand in August and September led to rolling blackouts affecting a majority of the island’s 1.5 million electrical customers.

Last week, several thousand people marched along a main highway in San Juan, the capital, blocking traffic with the latest in a series of protests over the seemingly unending electricity problems plaguing the island.

“The people can’t take it anymore,” said Iris Delia Matos Rivera, 69, a former employee of the island’s longstanding electrical utility who attended a recent demonstration.