Puerto Rico to reduce power generation amid cash shortfall
February 19, 2018 by admin
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Puerto Rico’s electricity utility said Friday it will dial down the power generation starting this weekend as a federal control board urgently seeks a $300 million loan for the troubled utility after a judge rejected a previous $1 billion loan request.
The announcement comes as nearly 400,000 power customers across the island remain in the dark more than five months after Hurricane Maria hit the island, causing the longest blackout in U.S. history.
Ernesto Sgroi, president of the governing board of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, said the reduction in power generation would start Sunday and was not expected to interrupt service. But he warned it could destabilize a power grid still being repaired after it was heavily damaged by Maria.
“Without the loan, and given the potential risk to its operations, we have no other responsible option than to begin implementing a limited operational emergency plan,” Sgroi said. “We fear this setback will result in the exacerbation of human hardship as potable water, power for medical procedures, communications, and open schools are at risk of disappearing again.”
Officials did not provide further details, including by how much generation would be lowered and which units would be targeted. Power company spokesman Geraldo Quinones did not immediately return a request for comment.
Before dawn Friday, the control board filed the scaled-back loan request and said Puerto Rico will have to further reduce power generation and personnel if it does not obtain the funds by Tuesday. It also said that the power authority is in jeopardy and that $300 million would allow the utility to operate only until late March, which it warned would leave “many customers” without power.
A federal judge found Thursday that neither the board nor government officials provided sufficient evidence to prove the power company needed a $1 billion loan, despite warnings the U.S. territory would have to start rationing electricity.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who was in Philadelphia on Friday, called on the U.S. Treasury Department to release a separate billion-dollar loan that Congress approved in October for disaster recovery efforts as officials warn the Puerto Rican government is running out of money.
“This is an urgent situation,” he said. “If the power goes out in Puerto Rico, if there’s an inability to buy fuel, it is a humanitarian crisis.”
Meanwhile, some Puerto Ricans fumed on social media about receiving expensive power bills despite not having lights. They also criticized the government’s threat to impose outages due to a lack of funds, with one person saying it would be like reliving Sept. 20, the day Hurricane Maria destroyed two-thirds of the power distribution system.
Opposition legislator Jesus Manuel Ortiz said Puerto Rico’s current administration lacked credibility since it wasn’t able to convince the judge it needed the $1 billion loan. He condemned threats of rationing electricity.
“The uncertainty of implementing selective blackouts in Puerto Rico, while … clients are still in the dark and when the rest of the island is starting to see a bit of normalcy, is devastating,” he said.
Ortiz also demanded that Rossello publicize revised fiscal plans for the power company, in addition to its water and sewer agency.
On Friday, the control board announced that it was still reviewing those plans, along with Puerto Rico’s overall fiscal plan, and that it had extended a deadline to approve them by more than a month.
Just hours before the board filed its latest loan request, the power company announced it was reducing employee working hours from seven to five days a week for safety reasons. It is unclear how that measure will impact power-restoration efforts across the island, and union leader Angel Figueroa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The board also said in its filing that it would seek an additional large loan in the next two to four weeks to help keep the power company running. Board members and Puerto Rico government officials said they would meet with a group of creditors later Friday, although they did not provide any details.
On Wednesday, a group of creditors offered a $534 million competing loan that the government has not accepted. Puerto Rico’s power company is already $9 billion in debt and operating with infrastructure that is nearly three times older than the industry average. The U.S. territory suffered frequent blackouts even before the hurricane, including an island-wide power outage in 2016.
Given the dire situation, Gov. Ricardo Rossello announced last month that he plans to privatize the company in the next 18 months.
Company director Justo Gonzalez said on Friday that power restoration efforts are ongoing and that work was completed on a key transmission line of 230,000 volts that would provide more stability to the damaged grid. He also said that 2,600 transformers will arrive next week, along with nearly 10,000 electrical posts and 922 miles of electric cable in the next two weeks.
“Although we have reached another significant goal, I want to assure those customers that still don’t have power that we haven’t forgotten about them,” he said. “Our work is not done…No one deserves to be without power, so we appreciate your patience.”
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‘Black Panther’ Smashes Box Office Records and Hollywood Myths
February 19, 2018 by admin
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There was never any doubt that “Black Panther” would rock the North American box office. Kevin Feige, the prodigy who runs Marvel, and Alan F. Horn, Disney’s movie chairman, have delivered one juggernaut after another. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, took a personal interest in “Black Panther,” approving its $200 million production budget (at least 30 percent more than budgets for other Marvel nonsequels like “Doctor Strange” and “Ant-Man”) despite concern by some at Disney about sales of “Black Panther” toys.
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“The concept of an African story, with actors of African descent at the forefront, combined with the scale of modern franchise filmmaking, is something that hasn’t really been seen before,” Mr. Coogler, the director, told The Hollywood Reporter. “You feel like you’re getting the opportunity of seeing something fresh, being a part of something new, which I think all audiences want to experience regardless of whether they are of African descent or not.”
[ALSO READ: Wakanda is a Fake Country, But The African Language in Black Panther is Real]
But no one quite knew how “Black Panther” would perform overseas.
Big-budget films that focus on black characters have long been held back by the Hollywood argument — a ridiculous one, in the eyes of many critics — that foreign audiences have little interest in films with largely black casts. It has been a self-fulfilling attitude; studios, ever fixated on what kinds of movies have succeeded in the past, never challenged the assumption with a big-budget fantasy because they were always too afraid to take the risk.
“Black Panther” arrived to very strong results in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ukraine, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil, in many cases beating initial ticket sales for Marvel nonsequels based on lesser-known characters, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” in 2014.
“Black Panther” was softer in Germany, an important market, where the sadomasochistic “Fifty Shades Freed” outsold it.
“We’re extremely pleased with the reaction around the world, even more so because we face nothing competitively for a month,” said Dave Hollis, Disney’s president of distribution.
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Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Disney will release “Black Panther” in Russia, China and Japan in the weeks ahead. Success in China, the world’s fastest-growing movie market, would be particularly sweet. If audiences there do not respond, however, it could have little to do with race. Hollywood imports are losing their luster in China as local studios become more skilled at making blockbuster-style movies. (Over the weekend in China, the locally produced “Monster Hunt 2” arrived to more than $130 million in ticket sales. Lionsgate gave it a 69-screen release in the United States, collecting $390,000.)
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[ALSO READ: Black Panther Cosplayers: ‘We’re Helping People See Us as Heroes’]
The frenzy surrounding “Black Panther” has been puzzling to some.
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“It’s an important chipping away at this Hollywood notion that somehow studios are taking a bigger risk if they cast nonwhite actors, but I don’t see it as a profound change,” said Todd Boyd, a cinema and media studies professor at the University of Southern California who focuses on popular culture and race. “I ultimately see it as exploiting a profitable niche.”
“To me, there is real change afoot when diverse actors are cast in roles that are not inherently diverse,” Mr. Boyd added.
But many people stood in line to praise Disney for pushing toward more diverse filmmaking. Richard Gelfond, chief executive of Imax, the large-format movie exhibitor, which played “Black Panther” in more than 60 countries, championed Disney for delivering “content that is compelling on its face but also bridges the gap between different cultures, and ultimately is a reflection of the shared values of moviegoers all over the world.”
Phil Contrino, director of media and research for the National Association of Theater Owners, noted the power of seeing “Black Panther” in a communal setting on a big screen. “Hopefully someday we’ll look back at the release of ‘Black Panther’ as the turning point when diversity and positive representation in blockbusters switched from being an anomaly to being normal,” Mr. Contrino said.
And Stacy L. Smith, an author of blistering studies about Hollywood’s lack of diversity, wrote on Twitter in a message to Mr. Iger, who has made inclusion a priority across Disney: “We have been watching; lead supporting roles have been changing as well as behind the camera. There is more to be done but this weekend is a giant leap forward.”
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