Puerto Rico moves to cancel contract with Whitefish Energy to repair electric grid
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[quote]Puerto Rico’s electric company moved Sunday to cancel a $300 million contract with a small Montana firm for repairs to the territory’s hurricane-ravaged electrical grid, saying controversy surrounding the agreement was distracting from the effort to restore power.
The move came hours after Gov. Ricardo Rosselló called for the contract’s cancellation and after the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has a large role in determining federal reimbursements, cited “significant concerns” over the utility’s arrangement with Whitefish Energy. About 80 percent of people on the commonwealth’s main island still have no electricity.
Thirty-nine days after Hurricane Maria hit the territory, Rosselló said he is requesting assistance from Florida and New York under mutual aid arrangements that utilities traditionally activate during emergencies. The territory had not previously done so and had not responded to offers of assistance.
“As a result of the information that has been revealed and the need to protect the public interest, as governor I am asking the power authority to cancel the Whitefish contract immediately,” Rosselló said in a news conference at La Fortaleza, the governor’s mansion. He did not cite specific information beyond what has been reported in media coverage.
Whitefish Energy, founded in 2015, had just two employees the day Maria hit Puerto Rico. Chief executive Andrew Techmanski has extensive experience in the electric transmission business, but Whitefish has received only small contracts, records show. Whitefish’s contract in Puerto Rico, the largest yet issued in the troubled relief effort, was not competitively bid.[/quote]
[url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/puerto-rico-governor-says-contract-to-whitefish-company-should-be-canceled/2017/10/29/e5336cda-bcb8-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?pushid=59f636434069751d0000001b&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.c3c84be018a5]Washington Post[/url]
At least the electric company people are willing to abandon big money projects at the first sign of a conflict of interest. If only Trump himself would do the same...
Did they really fucking think this entire deal wasn't going to stink to anyone? Come on.
A small electrical company given a territory wide restoration job? Not fishy at all
Give it to an actual network operator like those experienced with network restoration on the Gulf Coast. This whole thing was the seriously sinister side of the war of words between the White House and Puerto Rico - almost as if the executive set the project up for failure as some sort of gotcha, and their mates who own it got some cash out of it.
[QUOTE=Jon27;52836323]Give it to an actual network operator like those experienced with network restoration on the Gulf Coast. This whole thing was the seriously sinister side of the war of words between the White House and Puerto Rico - almost as if the executive set the project up for failure as some sort of gotcha, and their mates who own it got some cash out of it.[/QUOTE]
Its almost as if Trump is working with a foreign power to destabilize the USA by removing their Allies and territories.
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