Tiny power company from Interior Secretary's hometown snags huge Puerto Rico contract

originally posted by: DanteGaland
a reply to: Shamrock6

We can LEVEL a country w/our military and restore basic services quickly...

Why not our own territories?

Where's the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks? Army Corp of engineers? Don't we have like ten Nimitz class carriers?

Why aren't we USING our incredible military power to help PR get back on track?

Puerto Ricans have no political power, most are poor and brown, and are on an island......this isn't rocket science, folks

a reply to: Shamrock6

Only took them a month+ to get there.

We can only help they will stay there to help with the rebuilding process.

Wasting $300 million on a contract to a company with no capability is NOT helping pPR and certainly not helping the US tax fund.

First thing that came to mind, Clintons and Haiti. They must be worming around in there somewhere..

a reply to: jrod

More like two weeks, but hey. Don't let facts get in the way of the narrative.

a reply to: Shamrock6

How long did the USNS Comfort sit in Norfolk before deploying?

I do not know the logistics on when and who was deployed, but two weeks is a very tardy response.

Any idea how long it takes the US to park a carrier group of North Korea when they light off a missile or nuke?

originally posted by: jrod
a reply to: Shamrock6



Wasting $300 million on a contract to a company with no capability is NOT helping pPR and certainly not helping the US tax fund.

From the sounds of it, it was a Puerto Rican entity that gave them the bid. Should we just not let Puerto Ricans decide what's in their best interest?

If not, then maybe Trump was right, the Government of P.R. is pretty inept.

Which is it?

PREPA is the only entity authorized to conduct such business in Puerto Rico, making it a government monopoly

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority

a reply to: pavil

From the sounds of it, it was a Puerto Rican entity that gave them the bid.

From the sounds of it, there was no bid.

The contract was reportedly awarded through a phone call placed in the days immediately after Maria hit. A PREPA employee who happened to have a satellite phone and phone number for Whitefish made the call, according to a story published by E&E News, an independent news organization that focuses on energy and environmental issues.

weather.com...

Hopefully they'll be able to do what they say they can. I wonder if the contract includes liquidated damages.

a reply to: roadgravel


The way this works, is simple. Most power companies and electric companies only have 2 or 3 actual employees. When the contractor gets the job, he calls the union hall and hires as many people as he needs. When the job is over, they get laid off and "sit on the bench" until another contractor needs them.


Just because they are only a 2 man team does not mean they don't know what they are doing.

And trust me, I know. I have been an IBEW member for over 10 years. As work slows in the northeast, many members will travel south for the winter to work. Good pay, crappy job.

a reply to: theatreboy

Most power companies and electric companies only have 2 or 3 actual employees.

Really.

These are 3 man companies.

EXELON
DUKE ENERGY
AES
SOUTHERN COMPANY
FIRSTENERGY
PG&E CORP
AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER
NEXTERA ENERGY

Even the smaller power companies who are only maintaining their lines/grid (no generation) out here in the sticks have quite few more than 3.

a reply to: roadgravel


And trust me, they all get guys from the union hall. I worked 2 years ago in NC for a company I can not name, the company I worked for had 5 full time employees....there were over 1000 electricians hired from all over the country that "worked" for the contractor for almost a year before being laid off.

5 full time

Hummm. I always thought 5 was greater then 2 and 3.

Anyway, maybe that company wasn't typical. Still in business?

a reply to: roadgravel


Still in business....one of the biggest in the country. I am sorry I can't give you a name, I had a non disclosure due to the nature of the work....think the alphabet agencies.

8 years ago I worked for Conti Electric....even the general supervisor they sent out was from the union hall. They do some of the biggest building projects out there. At the time, they had the contracts for over 10 VA's.

I know it seems odd, but that really is how it is done. It is cheaper for the contractor because they don't pay benefits years round for everybody. They just pay union wage, which has benefits built in, and that is in their bid already. This way they get most of the profit for themselves.

a reply to: theatreboy

You cant give us the name on your anonymous ATS account?

Sorry but I do not believe you.

a reply to: jrod

"I don't know logistics, but I'm gonna say it's all too slow anyway."

'Nuff said.

At no point have I said that the disaster response has been 100% perfect 100% of the time. I've simply pointed out that thousands upon thousands of people have been sent to Puerto Rico. Multiple ships. Dozens of helo-lift vehicles. Multiple branches of the military. Engineers. Law Enforcement. Medical workers.

And I've pointed out that Puerto Rico is looking at months and months to recover, if not years.

Any idea how long it takes the US to park a carrier group of North Korea when they light off a missile or nuke?

The better part of three weeks. NK fired off their missile on April 3rd or 4th. The order for the Carl Vinson to deploy didn't go out for another five days. And then it took at least two weeks for them to get there.

originally posted by: jrod
a reply to: theatreboy

You cant give us the name on your anonymous ATS account?

Sorry but I do not believe you.

Where do you think electrical companies get all the line people to fix up after a storm? Hint, they don't keep that many lineman on salary for the whole year.

a reply to: pavil

Yep. Power companies use mutual aid agreements to get linemen from other states to flex in to the disaster area to speed recovery.

Something which, it appears, PREPA (the PR power company) hasn't done so far.

a reply to: DanteGaland

The military levels things quickly. Restoring them not so much. Not really their gig although they can do patch work pretty well until political and social entities can be brought to bare.

The US Military has been in Puerto Rico since before the storm hit serving as the stop gap. That information is more than available all over the web.

a reply to: theatreboy

Actually that is completely untrue. My father was the Vice President of Northeast Utilities and they literally had thousands of employees. So you're spinning fake news.

You'd rather big business get that money?

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: Middleoftheroad

So PR is hurting for power and their wisdom says to select a two man company to rebuild the grid. Yeah, I believe that.

Unsure what your end goal is with that post? You don't have to believe me, but I pulled the info from the OP's source and you didn't provide any source showing Trump was the reason the small company got the contract. Maybe you replied to the wrong poster?