Skip to main content

Whitefish Energy Is More Connected To Trump Than By Potential Conflicts of Interest

Embed from Getty Images
Weeks after the island of Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, aid is still getting wrapped up in a political storm instigated by the Trump administration.

Most recently, it was reported that a company from northwest Montana called Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC had signed a contract worth $300 million with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) in order to restore power.
PREPA, WAPA start power recovery plan

Since the storm, the US Army Corps of Engineers claimed that the storm affected 80 percent of Puerto Rico's electrical grid. It's been reported that the first group of employees from Whitefish Energy arrived on September 26.

So far as of last Thursday, 300 subcontractors and employees arrived. A spokesman for the company, Chris Chiames, said that they were looking to rebuild 100 miles of transmission lines. The company said they expect to have a total of 1,000 employees working to restore power.

Whitefish Energy's tied to Trump administration

According to a news release published on the same day claimed that they had already repaired several miles of lines, generally key distribution and transmission lines. Since it was learned that the Montana company got the contract, it was also learned that Whitefish Energy might have ties to President Trump.

This is because the company is based out of the same town where President Trump's Interior Secretary resides, Ryan Zinke. The company claimed that they were already working with PREPA before the Hurricane had hit and when they signed the contract last week, they reportedly only had two full-time employees.

The Mayor of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz demanded on Wednesday that the contract should be voided due to lack of transparency. The mayor has been at odds with President Trump and the victim of political attacks since taking a stand. The company also lashed out at Cruz via Twitter and in a snarky tone questioned whether the mayor wanted them to keep working or return to the United States.

Investigating Conflicts of Interest

The way in which the company used Twitter to attack the mayor and the style is exactly the same style of attack used by members of the Trump administration which in itself shows a definite connection. Democrats have also called for an investigation into the company's contract, including House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) whose spokesman said that the contract does raise a number of questions and that they would look into it.

The company's chief executive Andy Techmanski and Zinke admitted to knowing one another on personal terms. Zinke told The Washington Post in an email that it was common in a small town. Zinke said that his son joined a friend who worked with Techmanski who was doing construction as a flagger. Zinke denies that he had anything to do with securing the contract.
From spare change to dollars, pay what you can!
The chief executive said that they secured the contract in a more informal process with PREPA through phone calls rather than a bidding process. It should be noted that this too is similar to how the Trump administration has operated, where they too have operated in a more informal approach than any other administration reportedly has.

Spokesman Dismisses Questions About Company Contract as 'Conspiracy Theories'

I reached out to Whitefish Energy on the same day that the company trolled the Puerto Rico mayor to ask them about their response. The line of questioning was over why the company felt it necessary to respond in the same style that Trump had with his critics. Their spokesman, Ken Luce, wanted to respond on the phone but I requested an email response that would preserve their exact comments but I have not received a response since. 

However, on Friday, Luce did appear on MSNBC for an interview where they debated over the contract. Anchor Stephanie Ruhle referred to the fact that there had not been other bids considered and that the American Association of Public Utilities (AAPU) were also interested in the contract. Luce said that this was the case of an entrepreneur making an effort to travel to Puerto Rico when no one else would and getting the job.

When Ruhle said that there were legitimate questions about how a small two-year-old company that only had two full-time employees could have gotten the contract, especially one that is based out of Zinke's hometown, Luce appeared to acknowledge the legitimacy of such questions but he then appeared to be dismissive of them, calling the conspiracy theories.

In the continuation of the interview, Ken Luce becomes defensive with the line of questioning saying that "we're getting work done" and that it was all about an entrepreneur being proactive and approaching the island to help them. Here is that interview.


[Please support this NewsVVave writer and pay what you can via PayPal.]
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Affordable Care Act Repeal Delay Hides GOP 'Martial Law' Effort to Pass

Embed from Getty Images After seven years of Republicans trying to defeat the Affordable Care Act , their opportunity to immediately repeal the law was delayed by their own faction of right-wing extremists within their own body on Thursday. According to The Washington Post -- one of many media outlets reporting from Capitol Hill -- delaying the repeal of the Affordable Care Act was a confrontation that Republicans made by themselves. Those extremist right-wing elements in the party reportedly feel pressured by their constituents to cut a better deal. But it's not very clear to many Americans that with Republicans messing with the Affordable Care Act, that they're going to help "improve" it. The Post's report on the "embarrassment" says that earlier in the week, House leaders were making some last minute adjustments to pass the bill, but they weren't adjustments that would improve the bill itself but rather to improve ways they c...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Texas Libertarian Candidate & Texas Immigration Reform"

After the historic shut down that recently took place, all of the talking heads started predicting the next stand-off. What's the next legislative 'obstacle course' these politicians are gonna drag us through now? Everyone weighed in that it would be immigration. As predicted -- it's the 'bitch of the bunch'. It looks like the Democrats want to vote on immigration reform before the end of the year, but again, Republicans want to 'walk' the process by enforcing different parts of a separate bill piece-by-piece while the Democrats wants pass their entire chunk. As of this writing, three Republicans have sided with the Democrats. Obviously, Texas being a border state is definitely making this the main topic for the upcoming election and everyone's moving quickly to fight against or for immigration reform. One group of activists referred to as Stop The Magnet (STM) have been busy demanding that the law be enforced to keep '...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch As I Enroll For Healthcare At The Last Minute

Okay. I'm sitting down right now and it's 4:06 pm. Enrollment ends tonight at 11:00pm CST. Let's do this. 1. So here I am. I need to see the plans. I've done this only a few times before over the last few months without all the information I needed. Now that I have it, let's see how far it goes.  2. Just showing you the Texas thing...  3. Yep. Nothing. No big whoop, not stressing about it either. On a blogger's salary, I don't expect much. Still haven't done my taxes, which is on the list with this sign up. Just gonna wait for the email alert. I'm phoneless right now (blogger's salary).
Post a Comment
Read more