CNE – Centro Para Una Nueva Economía – Center for a New Economy
Non-profit, economic research and policy development organization
As Hurricane Fiona left Puerto Rico in a blackout, CNE reactivated the Puerto Rico Recovery Fund, created after Hurricane Maria to help people and businesses directly. CNE President and Founder Miguel A. Soto-Class shares what comes next.
A special edition on the PREPA-LUMA agreement. After 15 months, LUMA is falling short, but terminating the contract without a successor operator would be just as irresponsible. We outline three scenarios and their consequences.
A summary of our policy brief on the PREPA-LUMA agreement: what the timeline means, three scenarios for the government, and why the most practical option is to press LUMA to perform rather than terminate without a Plan B.
Fifteen months into LUMA’s operation of the grid, we evaluate where the PREPA-LUMA agreement stands and analyze the government’s options for terminating or enforcing it. We also explain why lower electricity bills depend on large-scale renewables.
Extending SNAP to Puerto Rico would expand eligibility to about 100,000 more people, raise benefits and make nutrition assistance responsive to crises. It would also end a discriminatory policy Congress imposed in 1982.
With food prices rising, we review the USDA’s updated feasibility study on implementing SNAP in Puerto Rico. The benefits outweigh the costs, provided the transition protects those who could lose eligibility.
We analyze the USDA’s 2022 study on implementing SNAP in Puerto Rico. SNAP would raise funding to about $4.5 billion by FY2031, increase beneficiaries by 9–12% and nearly double some benefits, though implementation costs and work requirements pose challenges.
Policy Director Sergio M. Marxuach joins a Brookings Institution panel on Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy and the lessons it holds for the island and the municipal bond market, alongside Natalie Jaresko and David Skeel.
