So What's the Big Deal?

            Public sentiment towards the gasoducto is extremely low — trying to find someone on the street supportive of the idea is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. 

            “As time goes by, less and less people believe in the propaganda,” said Sr. Neftali Garcia Martinez, an expert on environmental and social issues in Puerto Rico.  “They tried to do a blitzkrieg, the government said they had to do it in six months but as always they underestimated the opposition.”

            There are two main reasons as to why this gasoducto is such a hot button issue in Puerto Rico: the government’s shady and seemingly corrupt actions regarding the processes involved in getting the pipeline approved and constructed and the impact it will have on the environment.

Pizza anyone?

Citizens at a rally held by Casa Pueblo in protest to the gas pipe.

The Political Situation

            This project is not supposed to revolve around the political aspect of the issue but some information is necessary in order to fully understand the magnitude of this proposal. 

            Via Verde is expected to cost $350 million but public sentiment is that it will go way over budget, as $30 million has already been spent on the publicity campaign and nothing has even been constructed yet.  The government had originally wanted the pipeline to be functional by January 2012 but it doesn’t look like that will happen either.

            Local permits were pushed through only to have continually stalled at the federal level of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (who oversees projects in Puerto Rico) due to lack of in-depth environmental impact studies. 

            According to Arturo Massol Deya, president of the Board of Directors and spokesperson for the Scientific and Technical Commission at Casa Pueblo (the main opposition), the pipeline had already been designed before the energy crisis was declared and Via Verde officially announced on August 14, 2010.  He also has evidence the power plant that is supposed to convert the gas into electricity doesn’t have the capacity to do so.

            Two years ago the current governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, promised in his election campaign to never build a natural gas pipeline that would further the island’s dependency on fossil fuels.  However that is exactly what he is doing with Via Verde, although behind the smokescreen of transitioning to renewable energy sources, said Massol Deya. 

            In an address to the House of Representatives on April 14, 2011, Congressman Luis Gutierrez said that the ruling party in Puerto Rico would rather not have citizens notice this change of face so they work under the cover of the night to push it through.

            “Every day, the ruling party answers this question: ‘If you wanted to undertake a potentially dangerous, economically dubious, environmentally disastrous and extremely unpopular project, how would you go about it?’

            “Here’s the ruling party’s answer: You circumvent feasibility studies.  You avoid environmental impact studies.  You ignore the standard permitting and licensing procedures.  And you take every step possible to eliminate public hearings and scrutiny.”

            He went on to talk about how the government amended a law that dealt with natural disasters so they could bypass normal permitting and public processes (such as protesting) and declared an “energy emergency” to allow the pipeline to proceed — despite almost 100 per cent opposition to the project from scientific and social experts, lawyers, some government officials and its own citizens.

            It’s a known fact that the $10 million contract given to design the pipeline went to a friend of the governor’s who has no experience in that area — although he skis with Fortuño occasionally, as the newspaper El Nuevo Dia discovered. 

            Since his address, Gutierrez sent Freedom of Information Act requests to all federal agencies who have dealt with the pipeline up to this point and will plans to release the results when he receives them.  He also encouraged the Army Corps of Engineers to deny the permit request until all regulations have been met.

            No one from the government was willing to speak to me about the gasoducto and they have been very tight-lipped even with local media about the whole proposal.  When they do interviews it’s very rehearsed, controlled and they sneakily avoid answering questions put to them.