iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello is calling on leaders of the U.S. territory’s electric power authority to cancel a controversial, $300 million contract with a small energy company to rebuild the island’s electrical grid.
Rossello request for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s governing board to cancel its contract with Whitefish Energy comes after scrutiny and questions over the awarding of a major and crucial rebuilding project to the small company whose home base is in the Montana hometown of U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
“There can be no distraction that alters the commitment to repair the power grid as quickly as possible,” Rossello said in a statement Sunday. “The decision announced today is intended to reaffirm our commitment to transparency in the contracting process in the government of Puerto Rico and to achieve the highest degree of efficiency possible in the restoration of the power grid of our island, in the shortest amount of time possible.”
Only 29.7 percent of Puerto Rico electric customers now have power, more than five weeks since Hurricane Maria devastated the island on Sept. 20, according to statistics from the governor’s office.
Whitefish Energy Holdings is headquartered in Whitefish, Montana, which has a population of about 7,200. Zinke, a former Montana congressman, knows Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski. Zinke’s son also had a summer job at a Whitefish construction site.
“I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico,” said Zinke in a statement linked to a tweet. “Any attempts by the dishonest media or political operatives to tie me to awarding or influencing any contract involving Whitefish are completely baseless.”
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said its initial review of the contract raised significant concerns about how Whitefish got the deal and whether the agreed-upon cost was reasonable. The 2-year-old company had just two full-time employees when Maria hit Sept. 20. It has since hired more than 300 workers.
Rossello earlier today tweeted his call for the island’s utility to cancel the deal.
The Puerto Rican governor has also asked the U.S. territory’s comptroller for “a detailed and in-depth investigation into the recruitment process” that led the electric utility to award Whitefish the contract.
The Trump administration has sought to distance itself from the deal.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Zinke assured the president that he was not involved in the deal and that it was what she described as “a state and local decision made by the Puerto Rican authorities and not the federal government.”
“Our rates are competitive and our work is top rate,” spokesperson Chris Chiames told ABC News last week. He said the company is uniquely qualified to tackle the situation in Puerto Rico due to the CEO’s experience in “rugged and remote terrain.”
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