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The bell has rung, the screens have gone quiet, and tonight's story is a gas tanker that still can't get into port. Evening.
Puerto Rico has more solar on its roofs than gas plants on its grid. It still signed up for seven years of gas.
And the company selling the gas owns the company that burns it.
Yesterday, Puerto Rico's power rate hit a record 33.86 cents per kilowatt-hour. The mainland average is 18.3. A typical home's bill jumped from $229 to $271 a month. More than 40% of the island lives in poverty.
Now look up. Since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans have built a second grid with their own money. By the end of 2025 there were 191,929 rooftop solar systems on the island. Batteries sat in 171,372 homes and shops. Rooftop solar now has more capacity than every gas plant on the island combined.
You'd think the government would lean into that. It went the other way. Last December, the island's oversight board approved a seven-year gas deal with New Fortress Energy. Puerto Rico must take at least 40 trillion Btu a year. If it takes less, it pays anyway.
So the island promised to buy more gas than those plants burn. Who said it needed that much?
Genera PR, the company that runs the island's power plants. Genera is owned by New Fortress. When the oversight board balked in October 2025, it said nobody had independently checked Genera's forecast. Two months later, the board approved a deal with the same 40 trillion Btu floor.
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Trump to put Musk on $100 Bill? (This is even better.) |
When it comes to Elon Musk… |
The question is always, “What will he think of next?” |
Well, here’s a clue: |
What if I told you Musk’s next project could be his biggest one yet? |
According to tech visionary Ian King, that’s exactly what’s about to happen. |
His research shows Elon Musk is working to completely 'reboot' the U.S. financial system. |
But don’t expect to see the trillionaire’s face gracing the new $100 bill. |
Instead, Musk is racing to replace "money as we know it" with an innovation that could make him the most powerful man on earth — and make his early backers a fortune. |
This story is moving quickly, so go here to see all the details before Elon’s plan is fully rolled out. |
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A seven-year contract is supposed to buy security. So whose security did this one buy?
New Fortress answered that on day one. Its CFO, Chris Guinta, said the deal "locks in sustainable long-term margins for NFE" and gives the company "a foundation of financial stability." The seller was buying security too. It just got it in writing.
The CEO pitched the island a different benefit.
"This landmark agreement provides two critical benefits to the island: First, it establishes security of supply in San Juan for the next 7 years for power plants currently running on LNG."
Security of supply lasted less than a year. Since September 16, a tanker called the Amur River has been barred from San Juan harbor. The bay pilots say it's too big for the channel, and a federal judge has kept it out. Two plant units have been burning diesel instead.
The contract has a backup plan that lets another supplier use New Fortress's terminal. The governor has ordered a lawsuit to force it, saying New Fortress has refused. The regulator just refused to pass $17.6 million in disputed New Fortress fuel costs on to customers.
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The forecast: written by the seller's own subsidiary, never checked independently, approved anyway. |
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The seller: New Fortress struck a restructuring deal in March, three months after approval. Seven years of "security" now rests on that balance sheet. |
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The exit: about 3,850 new rooftop systems went up every month in 2025. Each one is a customer who stopped waiting. |
I don't think the lesson is solar good, gas bad. The island still needs plants that run at night and through storms.
The lesson is about who sits at the table. When the plant operator and the fuel seller share a parent, more fuel always looks like the answer. Nobody at that table gets paid to want less gas.
The people who want less gas built their own way out, one roof at a time. Everyone who couldn't afford to is paying 33.86 cents. Investors, remember the shape. When the supplier writes the forecast, it's a sales pitch.
Puerto Rico privatized its power plants. Its people privatized the roof.
Only one of those two grids needs a ship to get into the harbor.
— Theodore
The Capital Current ⚡
Every financial story has a power line running through it.
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