(SAN JUAN, PR) – Hours after Gov. Ricardo Rossello called for
its immediate termination, Puerto Rico's utility axed a $300 million
grid repair contract awarded to two-year-old Montana-based Whitefish Energy.
"It's an enormous distraction," Ricardo Ramos, CEO of Puerto Rico
Electric Power Authority, said at a Sunday press conference, according to
the Associated Press .
"This was negatively impacting the work we're already doing." Ramos
said the contract's cancellation will result in delays of 10 to 12 weeks,
though the company will complete work it's already started.
In a statement, Whitefish
said it was "very disappointed" by
the decision and claimed it would "delay what the people of Puerto Rico
want and deserve - to have the power restored quickly in the same manner their
fellow citizens on the mainland experience after a natural disaster."
During an interview with NBC News on
Saturday, Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski welcomed an audit into the contract and
said his company had "nothing to hide."
Doubt this is the end
of the story: Multiple congressional committees, government watchdogs and
others are still going to want to answers to why the island's bankrupt utility
awarded the massive contract in the first place to the tiny company from
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown. Just Friday, the top Democrat and
Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel asked DHS to review
the contract to determine whether FEMA could be responsible for reimbursing the
island's power company for Whitefish's work.
Hearings starting this
week: Expect the Whitefish scandal to dominate two congressional
hearings on the government's response to a string of recent hurricanes this
week. Homeland Security ranking member Claire McCaskill said
the contract "raises every red flag in the book" and told federal
officials they had "better be ready to answer tough questions" during
a Tuesday hearing. A House Energy
and Commerce subcommittee holds its own session Thursday
on response efforts.
