Congress set aside $1 billion to put solar panels on the homes of Puerto Rico's most vulnerable residents — internal DOE documents show how the Trump administration quietly rerouted it to a bankrupt utility and a gas pipeline

Congress approved $1 billion to install solar panels and batteries on the homes of low-income Puerto Ricans, but the Trump administration redirected the funds to the bankrupt utility PREPA and a gas pipeline. The Energy Resilience Fund was meant to help vulnerable residents who cannot afford power outages during storms, but the plan was scrapped after the change in administration.

Internal documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that the DOE bypassed standard procurement requirements and gave a large share of the funds to PREPA, which was asked for a minimal cost share despite reporting billions in annual revenue. Congressional Democrats have expressed concerns about transparency, potentially illegal actions, and the natural gas pipeline that would lock the island into imported methane for decades, instead of investing in distributed, climate-adapted infrastructure that experts say is needed for the island's grid.