TRANSITION FASTER:

Most important, governments should accelerate adoption of cleaner energy. Advancing the EU's existing proposals to boost zero-emissions hydrogen would help wean countries and industries off natural gas, as will additional storage for energy generated from renewable sources. But as countries such as France, the Netherlands and the U.K. have recognized, boosting Europe's energy independence -- not to mention meeting its climate goals -- simply isn't plausible without a significant new investment in nuclear power. Nuclear is already part of Poland's plans to cut coal and can help others to do the same. Leaders in countries where it faces skepticism, such as Germany, need to do more to dispel misconceptions about the risks and costs involved, especially as safer, smaller reactors come online.

Europe can't break its dependence on Russian gas overnight, but it can avoid being held hostage. By adopting a coordinated strategy to diversify its energy resources, European leaders can reduce both their vulnerability to supply disruptions and Putin's ability to inflict harm.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has $9.4 billion -- the largest amount awarded in the agency's history -- allocated to restore and protect Puerto Rico's power network from the type of disasters that have plagued it.

Renewable energy and consumer advocates say that money is best spent on putting solar panels on the roofs of every home on the sunny island, with the aim of creating a decentralized source of power generation. This could minimize the widespread blackouts that have occurred when storms damage the miles of power lines that run across rugged terrain from the oil-fired power plants that provide most of the island's electricity.

Those plants are still owned by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the local government-owned utility being privatized that turned the grid over to LUMA and which most experts blame for years of poor management. Besides being plagued by blackouts, the grid is expensive: Residents on the island paid an average of 19.24 cents per kilowatt hour in 2020, nearly 50 percent higher than the average U.S. home.

A new coalition of clean energy, union and other organizations, Queremos Sol, is lobbying federal officials to intervene in the rebuilding to sharply expand the amount of solar energy on the island. It says such an initiative aligns with Biden's plan to achieve 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity nationwide by 2035, as well as his goals of transitioning away from fossil fuel infrastructure that has been primarily sited in low-income areas and communities of color.

"Puerto Rico is a very big test," said Ruth Santiago, a community and environmental attorney in Puerto Rico and a member of Queremos Sol, noting that this is one fight Biden can win without any resistance from Republicans in Congress. "The funds are already allocated. They're fully within the control of FEMA under the Biden administration."

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