Opens profile photo
Follow
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Independent journalist from Puerto Rico | videos on YouTube: youtu.be/joB4U_1vqBA
Puerto RicoJoined September 2010
613 Following
26.3K Followers

Bianca Graulau’s Tweets

Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
These are just some examples of how colonialism and dependence restrict the freedom of the Puerto Rican people and make their lives more vulnerable. All happening under U.S. rule.
7
328
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
⁃Energy independence (PR depends on fossil fuels that come from other countries instead of renewables available right here like sun and wind) ⁃Food sovereignty (PR imports an overwhelming majority of the food we consume despite having fertile land to grow our own produce)
3
293
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
⁃Government elected by its people (Puerto Rico & other U.S. territories are ruled by a president and congress they can’t vote for) ⁃Financial sovereignty (decisions about what gets funded in PR are made by a board of unelected members imposed by the U.S.)
3
277
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
I just did an interview and was asked about my wish for Puerto Rico. I responded with something I don’t think I had said before: sovereignty. Because no matter what status you prefer for PR, I think we should all want people to have a say over their own lives. Let me explain:
54
1,580
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
And it is PRicans like teachers that continue to suffer now longer outages under Luma, higher costs for electricity and a pending increase in order to pay back the debt to bondholders. So when we talk about the billions in federal funding for PR, the question is: who benefits?
6
237
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
La junta also just gave its support for extending the temporary contract with Luma Energy with an increase in pay from $115M to $122M to adjust for inflation. Note that the CEO of Luma makes $1.1M/yr while teachers in PR have some the lowest salaries in all of the U.S.
3
222
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Why colonialism? Well, it was la junta (the unelected U.S.-imposed board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances) that was unwilling to budge on their position to freeze pensions so public employees like teachers would not be eligible for future cost of living increases.
5
225
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Let me give you another example of how colonialism operates in Puerto Rico. Cost of living increases for Puerto Ricans with public pensions - rejected. Cost of living increase for the private U.S.-Canadian energy company with an already billion dollar contract - approved. 🧵
48
1,817
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Es oficial. El contrato suplementario de Luma ha sido extendido. Bajo este contrato Luma tiene más paga y no hay penalidades por mal servicio. El de 15 años queda en pausa en lo que se resuelve la deuda de la AEE. La decisión se tomó sin el voto de los reps del interés público.
54
595
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau Retweeted
Benjamín Torres Gotay 🇵🇷
@TorresGotay
En una de las noticias menos sorpresivas en la historia de Puerto Rico, la Autoridad para las Alianzas Público-Privadas aprobó hoy extender el contrato suplementario de LUMA, que vence mañana. Falta la Junta de la AEE. No hay mucho suspenso ahí
elnuevodia.com
Autoridad para las Alianzas Público-Privadas aprueba la extensión del contrato suplementario de...
El acuerdo pactado con el consorcio estaría vigente hasta que la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica salga de la bancarrota
11
49
Bianca Graulau Retweeted
Laura Pérez
@LauraPerezS
Cuando terminó la producción de "Aquí vive gente", el documental que acompaña el video de "El apagón", de
@sanbenito
,
@bgraulau
y yo nos propusimos volver a trabajar juntas. En solo semanas, ya estábamos de vuelta en la faena, y este es el resultado:
youtube.com
Why there are still so many outages in Puerto Rico
After the most recent hurricane, some Puerto Ricans went a month without power. The government is about to enter into a 15-year contract with the company res...
2
135
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Here’s the story where we documented Puerto Rico’s current energy situation. We reached out multiple times to both Luma and the governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Pierluisi for response but were not granted interviews with either.
youtube.com
Why there are still so many outages in Puerto Rico
After the most recent hurricane, some Puerto Ricans went a month without power. The government is about to enter into a 15-year contract with the company res...
2
199
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Under these circumstances the govt of Puerto Rico has a decision to make this week. Luma’s 1st contract expires Weds & the next contract is for 15yrs. The govt wants to extend the current temporary contract under which Luma gets paid more & doesn’t face penalties for bad service
3
232
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
After the most recent hurricane, we documented how a PRican family had to buy their own $600 power poles and turn to the mayor of their town to send a municipal brigade to restore their power. They had spent a month in the dark and Luma brigades had yet to respond.
1
156
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Luma is a U.S./Canadian company that has already been in charge of distributing energy in Puerto Rico for 1.5 yrs. And outages now last longer, according to their own data. Luma has also admitted to failing to provide maintenance to power lines leading to outages over the summer
4
168
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
In Puerto Rico ppl still suffer the consequences of weeks’ long power outages while private companies profit. We documented the contrast between PRicans living in poverty who can’t even keep their insulin cold, while the CEO of the company in charge of restoring pwr makes $1M/yr
64
1,249
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Privatization was supposed to bring reliable electricity to Puerto Rico but outages now last longer under the U.S.-Canadian company the govt chose for the job. Now they’re about to get a 15-yr contract. What does that mean for Puerto Ricans? Video here: youtu.be/YHYGSEjErlg
Image
131
1,067
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
It has been 1 month since Hurricane Fiona and 33 people have died in Puerto Rico, according to the Health Dept. Some of those are due to “indirect” causes like lack of electricity. In case it hasn’t been said enough before: reliable electricity is a matter of life or death.
3
471
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
I was in Ponce last week when the emergency mgmt director got a call that another person died due to lack of electricity. It was a woman with health conditions who was still w/o power almost 4 wks after the hurricane. There are ppl in Puerto Rico who still don’t have electricity
18
1,068
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
We’re approaching 2 weeks since Hurricane Fiona came to Puerto Rico. More than 250k are still without electricity, according to Luma. The south & west regions won’t get full power restored until the end of next week. We hear accounts every day of how hard life is w/o the basics.
31
1,756
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Close to 1 million clients (67%) have had their power restored in Puerto Rico, according to Luma. Almost 500k are still without power, according to poweroutage.us. In the Ponce (south) and Mayagüez (west) regions about 30% have had power restored.
Image
Image
9
159
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
Here’s the video I refer to at the end. And here’s the documentary: youtu.be/1TCX_Aqzoo4
Quote Tweet
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
It feels so weird to be in this position as a reporter. But I don’t want to wake up one day and see that our natural resources have been destroyed and our communities locked out of the land where they were born. I’m happy to take a stand for nature and our people.
Show this thread
Embedded video
0:59
86K views
2
155
Show this thread
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
More than 850k clients in Puerto Rico have power now, according to Luma. That’s 58% and would leave some 600k still without electricity. But the poweroutage page reports close to 750k still in the dark. Last night, Luma confirmed that some who had power restored lost it again.
Image
Image
7
194
Bianca Graulau
@bgraulau
My dad got power restored but the water went out. So we’re debating whether it’s worse to live without electricity or running water. Not as a fun hypothetical. But as our reality in Puerto Rico.
60
1,347