Judge grants $300M loan for Puerto Rico power company

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal judge on Monday approved a $300 million loan for Puerto Rico’s power company that officials say will help keep the troubled agency operating until late March.

The ruling comes just days after the judge had rejected an initial $1 billion loan request made by a federal control board overseeing the U.S. territory’s finances.

The judge had said officials did not provide sufficient evidence proving Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority needed the money, so the board submitted a revised request for $300 million on Friday.

Hours before the judge approved the request, Gov. Ricardo Rossello maintained that the company still needed a $1 billion loan to keep operating in the months ahead.

“There’s no money,” he said. “We’re in a precarious situation.”

The board said in a previous filing that it planned to request more loans. The initial $300 million would come out of the government’s general fund, but officials needed permission from the court to do so given that the island is undergoing a bankruptcylike process to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt amid an 11-year recession.

Rossello stressed that the U.S. territory also needs a separate, billion-dollar loan that the U.S. Congress approved in October for disaster recovery.

Federal officials said in December that they were withholding the funds because they believed the government still had enough cash available.

Nearly 250,000 customers remain without power after Hurricane Maria hit Sept. 20.