Debbie Lesko: “While in the district, I met with the Puerto Rican Center of Arizona, including Gretchen Patterson, the founder and…”

“While in the district, I met with the Puerto Rican Center of Arizona, including Gretchen Patterson, the founder and president, Leticia Jimenez, Jose Moro, Claudio Medina, and Maria Romero. They are advocates for Puerto Rico and have family members still on the island. They work in Arizona communities to share the culture of Puerto Rico and educate people about the island. They described devastation on the island caused by Hurricane Maria. They also talked about the problems with the electrical grid, even before Hurricane Maria. This legislation, H.R. 4606, will help Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands by expediting the approval of projects to export small shipments of LNG to Caribbean island nations, which are in desperate need of natural gas to modernize their electric grids and supply more affordable fuel and feedstocks for manufacturing. H.R. 4606 will also help our U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands who are still recovering from Hurricane Maria. While the territories don't need a special permit to receive U.S. natural gas shipments, they would certainly benefit if we allow more U.S. small- scale LNG exports to other destinations in the Caribbean. H.R. 4606 will jump-start investments and jobs, which will create economies of scale. With more competition, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will have more supply options and lower costs. The Caribbean islands have some of the highest fuel and electricity prices.…”