Despite Donald Trump’s glowing assessment of his administration’s recovery effort in Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory is still in the throes of a major humanitarian crisis wrought by Hurricane Maria. Clean water remains in short supply, and nearly 80 percent of the island is still without power. To make matters worse, the commonwealth is in such a perilous financial situation that it is expected to run out of cash by the end of October.
Despite all that, The Washington Post reports that the territory’s state-owned electrical utility awarded a two-year-old company from Montana, which at the time of the hurricane had only two full-time employees, a $300 million contract to restore its electrical grid. Even more curiously, the company, Whitefish Energy, is based in the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who knows the owner, Andy Techmanski, and whose son worked a summer job at one of Techmanski’s construction sites.
Both Techmanski and Zinke deny that the Cabinet official had any role in helping Whitefish secure the contract, which makes the power authority’s decision odd at best. For one thing, in hiring Whitefish, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, chose not to activate the “mutual aid” agreements it has with other utilities, an arrangement that enabled Florida to bring in thousands of workers to restore power immediately after Hurricane Irma hit. (According to the Post, PREPA “has not replied to offers of assistance from mutual-aid partners.” For another, Whitefish, which had only two employees the day Maria made landfall, seemingly lacks the credentials to tackle such a project—and that’s putting it mildly.
There’s also the matter of how much Whitefish is charging, given that Puerto Rico is bankrupt. According to the contract, the hourly rate for a site supervisor is $330 while that of a “journey lineman” is $227.88. Subcontractors, who make up the bulk of the company’s workforce, cost $462 per hour for a supervisor and $310.04 for a lineman. Nightly accommodations are $332 per worker, and food is nearly $80 a day. The Post notes that only eight contracts over $20 million have been approved for Puerto Rico by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, and half of those have been for shipments of food and bottled water.
Unsurprisingly, the arrangement has raised questions. “The fact that there are so many utilities with experience in this and a huge track record of helping each other out, it is at least odd why [the contract] would go to Whitefish,” former Energy Department official Susan F. Tierney told the Post. “I’m scratching my head wondering how it all adds up.” Whitefish spokesman Chris Chiames, meanwhile, insisted the contract is business as usual. “We are taking personal risks and business risks working in perilous physical and financial conditions,” he said. “So the carping by others is unfounded, and we stand by our work and our commitment to the people of Puerto Rico.”
Zinke’s history, however, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in his judgment. During his short tenure as Interior secretary, Zinke has come under fire for his use of private planes, his myriad appearances at G.O.P. fundraisers, and—most recently—his ties to G.O.P. political action committees that many of his fellow Republicans have blacklisted as “scam PACs.” He has commented on only the first allegation, which he called “complete and utter bullshit.”
