Dear Community: We need your help to restore the Puerto Rico - Energy Resilience Fund and defend the lives of people in Puerto Rico. On January 9, 2026, the US Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with the government of Puerto Rico, cancelled $350 million in PR-Energy Resilience Fund awards. The fund provides solar energy and battery systems to low-income families in PR, especially those with disabilities and medical conditions that depend on electricity to survive. Puerto Rico experiences more power outages than anywhere else in the US. This cancellation left more than 12,000 electro-dependent and low-income families who had already been approved for a life-saving solar energy and battery system in limbo. Every outage puts them at risk. The DOE and PR Governor want to use the funds for energy grid repairs in PR, but they already have $16 billion in unspent federal funds for that purpose, which will take years to complete. We need your help to restore the PR-ERF awards to achieve the original purpose: Providing solar energy resilience that protects the health, safety, and independence of the most vulnerable low-income and electro-dependent people in Puerto Rico. Email US DOE Secretary Wright to restore the PR-ERF awards and honor the commitment to the 12,000 families.

Restore the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund Solar Access Program

I am writing to express my opposition to the cancellation of approximately $350 million in Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) awards and ask the U.S. Department of Energy to immediately restore the funded programs. These awards were intended to directly address the energy resilience needs of low-income families across Puerto Rico through the provision of residential rooftop solar energy and battery storage systems to protect their health, safety, and independence. These systems are especially critical for the thousands of electro-dependent people in beneficiary households who need electricity to power life-saving equipment and whose lives are put at risk with every power outage.  

In 2017, Hurricane Maria caused massive destruction leading to the longest blackout in U.S. history and more than 3,000 lives lost.  Nearly nine years have passed, and Puerto Rico’s electric grid recovery is still years away from completion. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Puerto Rico continues to experience more power outages than anywhere else in the United States. However, even with the best performing electric grids, occasional power outages occur. Reallocating the PR-ERF funding to electric grid repairs will not meet the urgent energy resilience needs of people who are electro-dependent and other PR-ERF beneficiary families living in communities experiencing the highest rates of outages.  

More than 12,000 eligible families across Puerto Rico have been directly impacted by the award cancellations, most of them include family members who are electro-dependent. With every outage, refrigerated food and medications spoil, medical treatments are missed, assistive devices fail, and life-sustaining equipment shuts off. No one should have to live with the fear that they or a loved one is in danger when the electricity goes out. The rooftop solar energy and battery systems provided by the PR-Energy Resilience Fund will help save lives.  

I respectfully request the DOE immediately restore the funds awarded under the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund and uphold their responsibility and commitment to the more than 12,000 beneficiary families in Puerto Rico.  

Sincerely,