Federal Support and Local Action

A June 2020 briefing transcript featuring Margarita Varela-Rosa of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources and Ernesto Diaz of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. The discussion focuses on the challenges of coastal resilience, the impact of major natural disasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the barriers to accessing federal funding for recovery and nature-based infrastructure.

• Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands suffered extreme damage from back-to-back category 5 hurricanes in 2017. Hurricane Irma caused $1.1 billion in damages to the U.S. Virgin Islands, while Hurricane Maria caused nearly $90 billion in damages across both territories and resulted in approximately 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico.
• Since late 2019, the southern region of Puerto Rico has been impacted by approximately 1,000 earthquakes, including 13 with magnitudes greater than five. These events damaged homes, roads, and schools, and contributed to the continued unreliability of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority grid.
• Despite Congressional approval and presidential signatures for emergency funding, including Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), the disbursement of these funds to local governments in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has been severely delayed by federal agency bureaucracy and slow publication of notices.
• Puerto Rico faces significant coastal vulnerability, with 61% of its population living in 44 coastal municipalities. Approximately 60% of the island's 225 beaches show signs of erosion, increasing the risk of storm damage to critical infrastructure, including all of the island's airports and fossil fuel energy facilities.
• Nature-based solutions, such as coral reef restoration, are presented as more effective and cost-efficient than 'gray' infrastructure for wave attenuation. For example, coral reefs in the San Juan metro area attenuated waves by up to 97% during Hurricane Maria, yet federal funding for such natural infrastructure remains difficult to secure due to traditional benefit-cost analysis (BCA) tools that favor rapid return on investment over long-term design life.
• The Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Law (Law 33 of 2019) establishes a public policy for Puerto Rico to transition away from fossil fuels. It sets clean energy production goals of 20% by 2022, 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040, and 100% by 2050.
• Sea level rise is a primary concern for Puerto Rico's infrastructure. Projections suggest an increase of 3 to 4 feet by 2100 in intermediate scenarios, and 9 to 11 feet in extreme scenarios, which would permanently affect the International Airport and international communications.

APA

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (2020). Federal Support and Local Action. https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_060220.pdf

Chicago

Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Federal Support and Local Action. 2020. https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_060220.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |title=Federal Support and Local Action |date=June 2020 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_060220.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{environmentalandenergystudyinstitute2020federal, author = {{Environmental and Energy Study Institute}}, title = {{Federal Support and Local Action}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2020}, month = jun, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_060220.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }