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Puerto Rico To Privatize Parts Of Its Electric Grid

The island still suffers blackouts nine months after Hurricane Maria.
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Puerto Rico is moving to privatize parts of its outdated electrical grid after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria.

On Wednesday, Governor Ricardo Rosselló signed legislation to sell parts of the power authority to private companies. He said power generation would either be entirely private or a form of public-private partnership. Distribution, he said, would be owned by the government but handled by a number of companies.

More than 5,000 homes have been without power in the nine months since the storm, according to NBC News. At the same time, Puerto Ricans are paying about 50 percent more for energy than residents of the U.S. mainland.