WASHINGTON – Lisa Donahue, the chief restructuring officer for the heavily indebted Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, will be one of four panelists testifying at a House Natural Resources Committee panel hearing on Jan. 12 about the commonwealth's energy problems.
The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hearing is expected to focus on the possibility of replacing Puerto Rico's primarily oil-based electricity generation with natural gas.
Donahue, managing director of New York-based AlixPartners, has spearheaded negotiations over PREPA's $8.2 billion of debt and played a key role in the restructuring agreement recently reached between the authority and its creditors, including bond insurers and hedge funds. The agreement must be approved by Puerto Rico lawmakers by Jan. 22 for it to take effect.
A committee spokesperson said the hearing is part of an effort to tackle big picture problems as Puerto Rico struggles with almost $70 billion of outstanding debt.
The commonwealth has already defaulted on three payments on bonds that are not constitutionally backed. Because it instituted clawback procedures that divert money from non-guaranteed bonds to those with constitutional guarantees, more defaults are likely.
The Jan. 12 hearing will also include testimony from Josen Rossi, president of the San Juan-based Puerto Rico Institute of Competiveness and Sustainability and chairman of the board for Puerto Rico construction and building-maintenance provider AIREKO. Other witnesses include Jorge San Miguel, chair of the environmental law, energy, and land use practice for the San Juan-based law firm of Ferraiuoli, as well as Jaime Sanabria Hernández, co-president and general manager for finance and administration at EcoEléctrica in Peñuelas.
Ferraiuoli's environmental law, energy and land use practice provides counsel on regulatory compliance, enforcement defense, disputes, and transactions associated with alternative renewable energy projects and alternative fuel facilities, according to its website. Sanabria Hernández's EcoEléctrica describes itself as an energy company that uses natural gas and runs the least polluting thermal generation plant in Puerto Rico.
