During his term as secretary of state, McClintock promoted the Fortuño administration's proposal to develop a Caribbean Energy Grid in which all Caribbean and Central American islands and nations would interconnect via an underwater electric transmission cable in order to generate electric cost reductions to consumers throughout the region, contribute to renewable energy development and reduced dependence on oil, the fuel most used to generate electricity in Caribbean islands today. On December 1, 2009, McClintock first spoke of the Fortuño administration proposal, during the 33rd Miami Conference on the Caribbean & Central America, that a Caribbean Basin electric grid be developed to reduce the region's "addiction to oil", as he called it.