UPDATE: Whitefish Energy released an apology to San Juan Mayor Cermen Yulin Cruz on Twitter, saying the comments posted earlier in the day “did not represent who we are and how important this work is to help Puerto Rico’s recovery.”
.@CarmenYulinCruz and everyone in Puerto Rico… pic.twitter.com/XHIwgQjYvh
— Whitefish Energy (@WhitefishEnergy) October 26, 2017
The $300 million contract has raised many questions about Whitefish Energy and its connection to members of the Trump administration, including President Trump himself. The hasty deal raised eyebrows and left the Governor of Puerto Rico and Mayor Cruz to ask for it to be evaluated and possibly rescinded.
—-
After a collection of outspoken interviews and pleas for help on social media that were met with hostility from Donald Trump, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz is dealing with her home and people being utterly devastated by last month’s hurricane. Even though Trump has reassured the American people that the cleanup and rebuilding of devastated Puerto Rico is going tremendously, 75 percent of the island is still without power.
In swoops Whitefish Energy, a small, two-year-old Montana company with only two full-time employees has won the $300 million contract to get Puerto Rico’s infrastructure back online. The young company winning the contract was enough to raise eyebrows, but their ties to Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are leading to bi-partisan calls for Congressional review.
Meanwhile, Cruz has publicly asked for transparency from the company, telling Yahoo News that the deal “should be voided right away, and a proper process which is clear, transparent, legal, moral and ethical should take place.” In response to her questions, Whitefish Energy has seemingly taken a page right out of Trump’s playbook and decided to hit back, before threatening to take their life-saving ball (electrical infrastructure restoration) and go home.
You would think I am the only one in the world that has commented on this. What is it about women having an opinion that irritates some? pic.twitter.com/XxGNLomjQy
— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) October 25, 2017
If @WhitefishEnergy feels that asking for transparency is ”misplaced”, what are they afraid we will find.
— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) October 25, 2017
We’ve got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city & 40 more men just arrived. Do you want us to send them back or keep working?
— Whitefish Energy (@WhitefishEnergy) October 25, 2017
@WhitefishEnergy implies that you will not treat the City of San Juan with the diligence it deserves. Thus admitting political motivations.
— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) October 25, 2017
Mayor, you called for our work to end. We do not want to leave the island without help. We’re committed to restoring power to Puerto Rico.
— Whitefish Energy (@WhitefishEnergy) October 25, 2017
Whitefish’s response to Cruz states they have over 300 workers actively laboring to get power back to Puerto Rico. It’s giving them the benefit of the doubt, but it’s unknown if the contractors are having trouble getting there because Puerto Rico is an island, surrounded by water. Big water.
Still, Tesla was able to successfully restore power to San Juan’s Hospital del Niño using solar energy, which will provide all the power it needs and is actively working to install battery technology to help Puerto Rican citizens.
Hospital del Niño is first of many solar+storage projects going live. Grateful to support the recovery of Puerto Rico with @ricardorossello pic.twitter.com/JfAu11UBYg
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 24, 2017
According to NPR, Elon Musk and Tesla re-routed some of their business’s resources to ensure that the job could be done quickly and efficiently.
The Puerto Rican government has requested an audit of Whitefish Energy.
(Via USA Today & Yahoo News)