This is how the local news media describes Whitefish Energy.
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The company was established in 2015. It doesn’t have an office and only lists two employees.
Whitefish Energy is little more than a post office box. They grab temporary employees and toss them at small construction jobs—with an emphasis on small. The largest electrical line constructed by Whitefish coming into 2017 was less than five miles long. And yet, Whitefish has acquired the contract to repair the 2,400 miles of electrical lines in Puerto Rico over not just other private companies, but instead of calling in other power companies under an existing series of mutual aid agreements.
Why not exercise those agreements—which brought more than 30,000 utility workers to Florida to repair utilities after Hurricane Irma—rather than count on a tiny company which has brought in 280 temporary workers and is slowly hiring more? No one seems to know.
It’s unclear why PREPA didn’t call for mutual aid when it contracted Whitefish Energy.
But there do seem to be a few clues. Among them are the fact that Whitefish is funded by a private equity firm that includes at least two big Republican donors, and one big friendship.
Luis Vega-Ramos, member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, told The Daily Beast, “Whitefish’s most important expertise or assets seems to have been… having the U.S. secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, as their former congressman and current ally and having the wisdom to retain the services of key people close to the governor [of Puerto Rico].”
Meanwhile, 79 percent of Puerto Rico is without power a month after Hurricane Maria.
GOP donors Joe and Kimberly Colonnetta are among those who know Zinke, along with Whitefish head Andy Techmanski. But the Daily Beast reports that the Colonnettas’ contacts don’t stop there.
Zinke isn’t the only member of the Trump administration with a connection to the Whitefish contract. In addition to the Colonnettas’ contributions to Trump’s presidential campaign, Kimberly Colonnetta’s Facebook page contains a photo of her with Ben Carson, Trump’s secretary of housing and urban development. Another photo appears to show Kimberly Colonnetta with Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Both photos were posted the week of Trump’s inauguration.
Though there is news of a possible congressional investigation into this matter, there needs to be more and more immediate action.
Because this looks very much like a case of crony politics putting not just the comfort, but the lives of more than 3 million Americans, on the line.