Puerto Rico Governor Calls For Whitefish Contract To Be Canceled

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello called for a controversial $300 million deal between the U.S. territory’s electric authority and a small Montana company to be canceled.

The deal was for Whitefish Energy, a company with ties to the Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to help rebuild parts of Puerto Rico’s power grid after it was decimated by Hurricane Maria. The relatively unknown company was started two years ago in Zinke’s hometown, Whitefish, Montana, and only had two full-time employees.

Power has been restored to only around a quarter of Puerto Ricans over a month after the storm.

“In the light of the information that has transpired, we ask the Board of Governors of AEEONLINE to cancel the agreement of Whitefish Energy,” said Rossello in Spanish on Twitter.

Puerto Rico’s state-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) inked the deal with Whitefish to restore three to four transmission lines or more than 100 miles of Prepa’s 2,500 miles of lines, according to NPR last week. The bill would be footed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Typically after a disaster utility companies will work other public utilities in mutual aid, instead of contracting out to private companies. Prepa is part of the American Public Power Association (APPA), a non-profit that represents public utility companies. APPA helped coordinate efforts in Florida and Texas to get help from other public utility companies, but Prepa did not reach out to Appa.