The Gasoducto del Sur (English: Southern Gas Pipeline) was a pipeline to supply natural gas to Puerto Rico for conversion to electricity proposed by the administration of Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. The pipeline would have run from Peñuelas, in Puerto Rico's south central coast to electricity-generating plants in Salinas, running in an easterly fashion along Puerto Rico's southern coast. The project aimed to supply a portion of Puerto Rico's electrical energy needs while lowering the cost of electricity in the island. The Gasoducto del Sur project faced stiff opposition from the public, environmentalists—including Casa Pueblo—and others. History In 1993, the chairman of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (AEE), Miguel Cordero, proposed a natural gas pipeline as part of the Government of Puerto Rico's plan to diversify Puerto Rico's energy sources. However, the proposal did not proceed during the administration of the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) governor Pedro Rosselló (1993–2000). In 2001, the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico (PPD) won the gubernatorial elections, put Sila Calderon in La Fortaleza from 2001 to 2004, and appointed Héctor Rosario as executive director of the AEE. The pipeline plan proposed by Cordero was shelved. In 2005, a natural gas pipeline project named Gasoducto del Sur (English: Southern Gas Pipeline) started construction under the PPD administration of Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. The Gasoducto del Sur pipeline would have transported natural gas from the EcoEléctrica facilities in Peñuelas to the power plant at Aguirre in Salinas. Acevedo Vilá managed to complete about 25% of the Gasoducto del Sur project before being defeated by the opposing party, the PNP, in the 2008 elections. When the PNP took back La Fortaleza in 2009 via Luis Fortuño as governor, Miguel Cordero was reappointed executive director of the AEE, and the Gasoducto del Sur project, though a quarter of its way completed, was abruptly cancelled. The cancellation left the Government of Puerto Rico with a US$59 million debt to the contractor, Skanska, and opened the way for the PNP's alternative project, Gasoducto del Norte. However, after strong environmental and popular opposition to the Gasoducto del Norte project, on 11 October 2012, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (AEE) withdrew the entire Gasoducto del Norte Gsoducto del Norte permit application from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers evaluation process, thereby stalling approval of the proposed pipeline indefinitely. In November 2013, the project was under reconsideration by the administration of Governor