stating that "with today's technology, the cost to produce a kWh using renewable energy sources [such as solar or wind] is considerably more expensive than using traditional energy sources". However, on 21 December 2011, Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica, the government's Via Verde customer, admitted that Via Verde will not lower consumers' energy costs. Cost of the project The financing for the project is also under fire. Those opposing the project ask, "If the project will be so good financially, why is it that the Republican capitalistic administration of Governor Fortuño has not found a private investor to finance it?" And add that "the so-called capitalistic republicans now want to socialize the costs and privatize the profits." Pedro Jiménez, retired engineering professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, argued that "in the long run, the project will cost from two and a half to three times the currently project cost of the AEE of $445 millions." In January 2012, Casa Pueblo estimated that the cost of the project, considering payments to contractors of $800 million plus amortization over 30 years, will be $3 billion USD. Proper infrastructure According to officials at EcoEléctrica, gas output at their facilities will not provide enough natural gas to power generators beyond Costa Sur, the first gas-to-electric conversion unit in the path of the pipeline and located in the municipality of Penuelas. Opponents argue that "building a pipeline when there is no gas, makes no sense" and are demanding that the government abandon the project altogether: the admission by a high-ranking officer of EcoEléctrica to La Perla del Sur is a decisive and unequivocal confirmation that what we have been stating for months. Social effect It has been estimated that construction of the pipeline will affect 51 communities, the campus of the University of Puerto Rico at Utuado, and church and gas station entrances potentially affecting some 22,000 families. The Government, however, states that the pipeline will be built at a prudent distance from communities. Yet community leaders at Casa Pueblo explain that the pipeline will be run alongside roads, including alongside the road in front of Levittown, a community of 30,000 residents, and the pipeline will run above ground in sections of PR-10, a road used by over 13,000 vehicles daily. Safety concerns In defense of the project, its senior environmental advisor, Daniel Pagan Rosa, stated that the pipeline's safety system will be