The Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello has called for the termination of a contract given to WhiteFish Energy, a relatively new and small Montana company that assists in rebuilding the electricity grid of the island.
Ricardo Rossello also said he wanted to meet with repair teams from NY and FL to support the reconstruction endeavor in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
The $300M contract was awarded to Whitefish Energy, which has little experience working on big scale projects like the one in PR.
Various investigations and audits are under way.
More than 75% of the people in the island are still without power after more than 5 weeks after the hurricane wrecked the entire power grid.
Rossello said on Sunday that he had asked the Board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to cancel the Whitefish contract.
“There can be no distraction to alter the commitment to restore the power system as quickly as possible,” Rossello said.
The governor said he had instructed PREPA to “immediately coordinate with the states of Florida and New York to strengthen brigades” currently rebuilding the grid on the island.
There were concerns about the reasons why the Puerto Rican authorities had not applied for “mutual assistance” from other government authorities, as is typical of disasters in the US.
The White House and FEMA stated they had nothing to do with the deal.
The company has its headquarters in the town of Whitefish, home town of US domestic secretary Ryan Zinke.
