Kuhl, Laura and Stephens, Jennie C. and Serrano, Carlos Arriaga and Perez-Lugo, Marla and Ortiz-Garcia, Cecilio and Ryan, Ellis
(2024)
Fossil fuel interests in Puerto Rico: Perceptions of incumbent power and
discourses of delay.
Energy Research & Social Science, 111 (103467).
pp. 1-11.
ISSN 2214-6296
Abstract
This study explores perceptions of fossil fuel interests and the role narratives of fossil fuel obstruction play in
slowing down the renewable energy transition in Puerto Rico. We analyzed interviews conducted with 56
“energy actors” engaged in Puerto Rico’s energy system about their visions of the system’s future and perceptions
of the influence of different actors in promoting change or reinforcing the status-quo. The analysis also examined
the use of discourses of delay in participant interviews using a framework proposed by Lamb et al. (2020). Our
interviews revealed that a wide range of energy actors perceived obstruction by fossil fuel interests as shaping
Puerto Rico’s energy transition, and used discourses of delay to describe Puerto Rico’s energy transition, but also
employed narratives that countered this obstruction and resisted fossil fuel interests. The results depict the
conflicted nature of Puerto Rico’s energy transition: on the one hand there was widespread agreement across a
wide range of actors that the future of Puerto Rico’s energy system would eventually be renewable based, and at
the same time, there were significant doubts that a renewable transition could or would occur. The complex
interplay among perceptions of the influence of fossil fuel interests, discourses of delay, and narratives of
resistance and community power offers insights into why renewable energy deployment has been slow in Puerto
Rico, despite the possibility of a rapid transition after Hurricane Maria devastated the energy system in 2017 and
ambitious energy policies were passed.
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