SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— Conservation and community groups have won a legal challenge to federal plans to spend billions of dollars to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid back to the centralized, fossil fuel-dependent status quo instead of investing post-disaster funding in distributed renewable energy.

Thursday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico holds that the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to consider rooftop solar, storage and other forms of distributed renewable energy to provide electricity to communities at risk from Puerto Rico’s hurricane-battered grid. The ruling orders FEMA to prepare an environmental impact statement that analyzes distributed renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

The new ruling found that “[m]ost Puerto Ricans depend on an electrical power infrastructure that relies primarily on fossil fuels,” which the court concluded “has proven inadequate, unreliable, and extremely vulnerable to weather events, events whose effects will be more severe in the future due to climate change.”

The ruling goes on to find that “if FEMA funding continues to be channeled to fossil fuel-based infrastructure, it is unlikely that Puerto Rico will have the resources to pursue renewable energy alternatives in the near future,” explaining how “the record clearly shows that renewable energy alternatives were reasonable and feasible.”

”This decision shatters the misconception that there is only one way to transform the electrical system and, on the contrary, recognizes that the alternative we have promoted for years — a renewable, distributed system — is viable and should be seriously considered when allocating public funds,” said Federico Cintrón Moscoso, program director of El Puente de Williamsburg’s Latino Climate Action Network in Puerto Rico. “FEMA's failure to consider the solar alternative violated the law and paved the way for the reconstruction of the same obsolete fossil-based system that brought us to this crisis in the first place. This decision, therefore, recognizes our right to an accessible and clean energy system, as stipulated by our local laws and collective aspirations. It also recognizes that we cannot aspire to transform our electrical system at the expense of our health and that of the environment. Energy issues must be addressed fairly because they are not separate from the well-being of people or the planet."

“The disaster recovery funds represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the Puerto Rico electric system to serve the public interest and to ensure that thousands of people do not die, primarily from lack of access to electricity as happened after Hurricane Maria,” said Ruth Santiago, a community and environmental lawyer.

“This is a huge victory for Puerto Rican communities that have long suffered from an unstable, dirty grid and want reliable and climate-safe rooftop solar,” said Howard Crystal, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program. “The court saw that it’s senseless for FEMA to spend billions propping up the ever-failing centralized fossil fuel-based grid instead of helping communities build resilient, renewable, cost-effective energy systems. We look forward to FEMA’s new review incorporating these alternatives.”

The ruling comes after Hurricane Erin impacted the archipelago in August 2025 and left thousands of Puerto Ricans without power yet again. Earlier this year, chronic grid outages compelled Puerto Rico’s governor to pledge to improve the fossil fuel grid.

This case concerns FEMA’s use of disaster relief funds from 2017’s Hurricane Maria to invest at least $12 billion in projects that lock Puerto Ricans into decades of fossil-fuel dependence. FEMA’s projects conflict with Puerto Rico’s 2019 law setting a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050 and Puerto Ricans’ own energy plan for local solar and storage. A 2023 U.S. Department of Energy report found that Puerto Rico had more than enough renewable energy potential to meet its electricity needs.

President Donald Trump has launched an ideological war against clean energy like solar and battery storage. He has also severely slashed FEMA funding for disasters. This case involves funds that Congress already allocated to Puerto Rico in Hurricane Maria’s aftermath.

The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and eight Puerto Rican community groups: Alianza Comunitaria Ambiental del Sureste, Campamento Contra las Cenizas en Peñuelas, Casa Tallaboeña de Formación Comunitaria y Resiliencia, Comité Caborrojeño Pro Salud y Ambiente, Comité Dialogo Ambiental, Comité Yabucoeno Pro-Calidad de Vida, El Puente de Williamsburg and Frente Unido Pro-Defensa del Valle de Lajas.