Koay
| Ethan Koay | |
|---|---|
| 24th United States Secretary of Energy | |
|
Assumed office March 23, 2021 | |
| President | Christian Bo |
| Preceded by | Bob2Boy |
| 1st Puerto Rico Secretary of Energy | |
|
Assumed office January 9, 2021 | |
| Governor |
Draven Prince Joash Trudeau (acting) Layla Canmore |
| Preceded by | Position Established |
| Workers' Party National Committee | |
|
Assumed office March 22, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Position Established |
| Constituency | 4th District |
| Personal Details | |
| Born |
September 9, 1989 Bayamón, Puerto Rico |
| Political party |
Workers' Party 2021-present Global Labor 2020-2021 |
| Education | University of Puerto Rico (Bachelor's in Public Policy) |
Early Life
Ethan Koay was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, on the 9th of September, 1989. Both of his parents were immigrants from Singapore who'd moved in the 1980s in search of better opportunity in the then-flourishing Puerto Rico with an expanding labor market and ease of doing business. Due to his heritage, as well as his childhood on the island, Ethan was multilingual, fluent in Chinese and Malay, in addition to English, as well as Spanish, commensurate with the education in Puerto Rican public schools. His father had a career in clinical trials and development, helping start a small nonprofit to develop and produce medical equipment to local clinics and hospitals which did not have as easy access to the American pharmaceutical market due to Puerto Rico's divestment economy and domination by larger corporate players in the healthcare industry. His mother worked as a nurse for a local practice. In 2007, he graduated from Maria E. Rodriguez High School with Honors, moving on to the University of Puerto Rico, where he would be introduced into left-wing circles and active in local politics, volunteering for Senator Mike Gravel's 2008 presidential campaign.
Union Work
In 2011, he graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a Bachelors' Degree in Public Policy and a minor in Environmental Studies. While his studies led him to develop a passion for policymaking, he opted to lean on the things he'd learned in his energy-related courses, joining PREPA first as an intern and then as a representative for UTIER, one of Puerto Rico's largest energy sector unions, going on to work as a liaison between UTIER and PREPA for nearly a decade, in which time he developed strong connections with many local union activists and community leaders, becoming an important voice for the pro-statehood movement and a well-known advocate for strong environmental reform. After Hurricane Maria, he helped with recovery efforts, taking a more central role in PREPA's management in line with the organization's attempted reconstruction.
Nomination to PR Energy Secretary
Though some minor controversy arose out of the Puerto Rican Branch of United Left's expulsion of him due to his alleged involvement with the National Greens, which he maintains was solely an environmental policy based relationship, seeing as his work with community activists had him develop relationships with every local party, community leaders pushed for Governor Canmore to nominate him to lead the newly founded Department of Energy and Climate Change, which she accepted. Around the same time, he found success with the Global Labor Party, joining its Puerto Rico branch. The first few months of his tenure at the Department were instrumental, with the establishment of the Solid Waste Bureau, aiming to guarantee clean drinking water and energy to every Puerto Rican.
Tenure Under Governor Prince
He eventually left the Global Labor Party to help start the Puerto Rican branch of the Workers' Party, to which he would eventually be elected to the National Committee of; which led him to unsuccessfully pursue a surprisingly strong challenge to then-Senator Ian Bellinger. When Governor Prince was elected to succeed Layla Canmore, Ethan Koay was chosen to remain a part of the Puerto Rico Cabinet, under which he continued to work, giving him a reputation of being one of the Workers' Party's most bipartisan members after having worked with two Administrations far to the right of his own political leanings. While he demonstrated an ability to work well with Governor Prince, he also demonstrated a willingness to stand often as the sole dissent in Prince's Governor Mansion, unsuccessfully challenging the Governor for House of Representatives and then becoming the first member of his Cabinet to publicly criticize him for the Medalgate scandal.
Nomination to Secretary of Energy
President Christian Bo nominated him to the position of Secretary of Energy in his first Unity Cabinet, leaving Mr. Koay as one of the left-wing members and one of two Workers' Party of his center-right libertarian Administration. After being unanimously confirmed by the Senate in a bipartisan vote, he went on to eliminate much of the Energy Department's red tape and bureaucracy as well as strengthen the relationship between federal and tribal energy infrastructure.