By Hope Moses
Medill Reports
SALINAS, Puerto Rico – Residents on Puerto Rico’s south coast are grappling with the news the coal plant in their community could keep operating – and causing serious health impacts – for years to come.
The coal plant had been scheduled to close in 2027, but now plant owner Applied Energy Services and island lawmakers are seeking to extend its life beyond that date.
The Puerto Rican legislature is considering a bill, supported by Puerto Rico’s newly elected Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colón, that would eliminate a previous goal for the island to use 100% renewable energy by 2050 and eliminate a mandate that coal plants close by 2028. At a Feb. 10 hearing on the bill, lawmakers said it would allow the plant to operate until 2030 and apply for additional five-year extensions.
Government and company officials say the coal plant’s energy is needed. However, residents and advocacy groups say increasing investment in rooftop solar can meet energy needs while protecting their health.
On Feb. 13, local environmental activists applauded a resolution from the mayor of Guayama, the town where the plant is located, opposing the burning of coal. They are calling on other local officials, including the mayor of Salinas, a neighboring town, to likewise condemn the plant.
“He’s the first mayor to oppose it,” said Jose Cora in Spanish, the president of the grassroots organization Acción Social y Protección Ambiental. The organization has frequently protested the Salinas mayor over her failure to oppose the coal plant or use federal funds to remove coal ash from the community.
Cora and other opponents point to numerous environmental violations committed by AES-PR, including failure to comply with air pollution regulations and groundwater contamination caused by coal ash scattered around the island. The company’s groundwater monitoring data shows contamination from coal ash.
The EPA officially made coal ash a priority and reached a settlement with AES over coal ash-related violations last fall.
Since opening in 2002, the 510-megawatt coal plant has been heavily criticized by medical doctors, researchers and residents, who say the air pollution and coal ash contamination from the plant have led to health consequences for nearby communities.
“They’re sick and tired,” said Miguel Torres, a retired professor and researcher in the Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico who lives on a hillside of Salinas, overlooking the smokestacks of the coal plant. “Plus, sick themselves.”
The local rates of chronic diseases like cancer and respiratory illness – both linked to coal ash – doubled between the years of 2016 and 2018, according to a University of Puerto Rico study.
The study aligns with what Dr. Gerson Jiménez said he witnessed first-hand.
Dr. Gerson Jiménez discusses his career as the former medical director at Hospital Episcopal San Lucas in Guayama at Miguel Torres’s hillside home on Feb. 2 in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Photo by Hope Moses/MEDILL
Jiménez, who served as the director of Hospital Episcopal San Lucas in Guayama for 22 years before retiring in 2022, said there were an average of 103.3 cancer cases per year in Guayama from 1990 to 2000 – before the coal plant opened, according to the Registro de Tumores de Puerto Rico.
From 2010 to 2014, there were 159.4 cases per year on average.
“I have taken this information to different lawmakers, and they have done nothing.” Jiménez said in Spanish.
Guayama residents have reported suffering respiratory and skin diseases and cancers they think were caused by the coal plant. Cora and other residents said they believe the plant will continue to have irreversible impacts on the residents.
“The operation is a sentence of death for us, little by little – for the community close by,” Cora said in Spanish. “Like Dr. Jimenez said – has always said – the respiratory illnesses and cancer have increased in Guayama and Salinas.”
Similar perspectives were shared at the Feb. 10 public hearing on the bill.
Government officials, however, say the scheduled shutdown of the coal plant in 2027 would have devastating impacts on the island.
“It would mean 500 fewer megawatts and, for real purposes, there would be blackouts and generation problems,” Rep. Victor Parés Otero said in Spanish at the Feb. 10 hearing, as reported by local media. Otero said AES would not be given a “blank check” but would need to justify continued operation.
Officials at the hearing also said the plant could be transitioned to natural gas, which is cleaner than coal.
Clean energy advocates on the island have long maintained solar can meet much of the island’s energy needs while also making the grid more resilient to disasters.
Ruth Santiago, an environmental lawyer who opposes the bill to extend the coal plant’s life, said this is more than a job for her. As a Salinas resident, she has a personal stake in the matter.
“I live here; I live down the road,” Santiago said. “It’s just a very egregious example of environmental injustice and overburdening.”
Santiago and other activists are pushing the local government to invest more in rooftop solar energy.
Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Energy promised up to $440 million for distributed rooftop solar and batteries, and a separate federal loan to help build 200 megawatts of utility-scale solar and almost 300 megawatts of battery storage in Puerto Rico. Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm visited the Guayama area to tout the department’s $1 billion investment commitment.
Granholm visited Guayama in July 2024 and again in January 2025, following a massive New Year’s Eve blackout and shortly before President Donald Trump took office.
Former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Michael Regan also visited the area, denouncing the environmental injustice of coal ash pollution.
A study by federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, found rooftop solar could provide up to 6 gigawatts of power in Puerto Rico, 12 times the capacity of the coal plant.
With Gonzalez supporting Trump and the Trump administration stridently opposing renewable energy, Cora expressed the urgency of demanding action from the local government.
“The most important thing is the presence and activism of anyone who worries about health and the environment,” Cora said in Spanish. “This belongs to us. If we don’t put pressure on them, they’re going to keep operating.”
Hope Moses is pursuing a master’s degree in investigative and data reporting at Medill. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
