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

originally posted by: Shamrock6
About that whole "terrible disaster response" we keep hearing about.

Thousands of troops deployed. Hundreds of civilian and military engineers. Dozens and dozens of helicopters. Ships. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people from civilian agencies.

In the rush to blame Trump for any and every thing possible, I think a lot of folks have forgotten that Puerto Rico was practically leveled by the storm and fixing things isn't going to happen overnight, or in a week or two.

ETA - as to the power contract: Brian Klaas (some author) is claiming Zinke's son worked for the power company at some point. So there's that.

Do you think people are going to believe you without any support?

a reply to: FyreByrd

I don't particularly care. It's really not at all complicated to find articles about ships and troops and federal employees being sent to PR. If people would rather stick to their dogma than read, that's their problem.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Yet from what I have heard from Puerto Rican residents and volunteers over there, most of the aid is coming from volunteer groups. Many Puerto Ricans have not seen federal aid but have seen volunteer groups that bring food, water, supplies, even solar panels.

Do you get the perception of the US government not helping much?

The business is based in Whitefish, where Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was raised. A spokesman for the cabinet member said he had no role in securing the work for the company, according to the newspaper.

I wonder what the chances are that a small company from Montana with two employees would get this contract?

zillion to 1

And were suppose to believe the secretary had no say so in this ?

a reply to: Willtell

That is a bizarre coincidence that a tiny firm got an apparent no bid contract for PR's power restoration. Even stranger is that group just happens to be in the Secretary of the Department of the Interior hometown.

Did they think no one would notice?

originally posted by: jrod
a reply to: Shamrock6

Yet from what I have heard from Puerto Rican residents and volunteers over there, most of the aid is coming from volunteer groups. Many Puerto Ricans have not seen federal aid but have seen volunteer groups that bring food, water, supplies, even solar panels.

Do you get the perception of the US government not helping much?

Sounds to me like you've settled on the conclusion the US government is not doing much to help. Do you truly think that Shamrock made up the stats of the number of resources sent within days? How did you hear from Puerto Ricans by the way? Just curious. Hopefully not through the rumor mill.

a reply to: jrod

Yet from what I have heard from Puerto Rican residents and volunteers over there, most of the aid is coming from volunteer groups.

Because the majority of the time the military is flying supplies in, dropping them off, and leaving to go pick something else up. The volunteers are there to stay, because that's the whole reason they're there in the first place. If an aircrew sits down and spends hours passing out meals, that's hours less flying time they have.

Do you get the perception of the US government not helping much?

No, because I can read.

gee whiz that's surprising.

That's a pretty small number considering the scale of the project, so I assume it's for managing the project and contractors involved.

Seems those with opinions know not a whole lot about how large construction projects happen. This is not unusual at all, even for billion dollar plus projects. In fact this seems quite normal having worked around that myself in the 70's and early 80's.

Why anyone would politicize this is beyond reason. Complain not enough is being done, then when the real work starts, complain about those who will do it. SSDD

a reply to: Shamrock6

Yet I am sure you have heard the saying 'perception is reality'.

The perception of many Puerto Ricans is the US government is not there.

Now do you get it?

Also the volunteers I know are getting supplies via donations, NOT the US government.

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

I know people who are volunteering there, people in Puerto Rico, and Puerto Ricans in Florida who have been in contact with their families.

I am not saying the US is not doing much. I do think the overall response was slow. I am just saying what I have observed....the perception of people who are actually in Puerto Rico.

originally posted by: jrod
a reply to: Willtell

That is a bizarre coincidence that a tiny firm got an apparent no bid contract for PR's power restoration. Even stranger is that group just happens to be in the Secretary of the Department of the Interior hometown.

Did they think no one would notice?

EYES WIDE SHUT

originally posted by: jrod
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.

You do not understand construction or construction companies.

So what that the company only has two people.
its a holding company with subsidiaries.
www.bloomberg.com...:US-whitefish-energy-holdings-llc
construction workers are easy to find and hire.

Whitefish's largest contract was a $1.3 million electrical upgrade in Arizona.
and you are saying they don't have the capability and i say you don't understand anything about construction projects.
back before i retired i worked on a number of power plant projects that were over $400 million.

i know this company has done large projects

a reply to: jrod

I “get it” that you’ve got nothing but anecdotal “evidence.” Coulda saved a lot of conversation if you’d just been up front about that in the beginning.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Anecdote evidence is first hand reports from people in Puerto Rico?

This thread is not about the PR response. It is about a tiny firm with ties to the Department of Interior getting a giant no bid contract to restore power.

a reply to: jrod

First hand? You’re not in Puerto Rico. You’re not a first hand report.

I know a guy in Puerto Rico that says everything is great and going perfectly. See how that works? I said I know a guy, told a story, and apparently since you can’t disprove it that makes it evidence.

And yea, I know. Don’t whine about all the discussion regarding the response in PR when you’ve been more than willing to engage in it yourself.

a reply to: Shamrock6

So you are attacking my credibility?

Do you think I am making this up to bash the US response.

My information comes from people in Puerto Rico who are out there...many in rural areas. Volunteer groups that are not mainstream like
americanblackcross.org... .

a reply to: jrod

What’s to attack? Stories you claim to have gotten from people in Puerto Rico carry no more weight than stories I claim to have gotten from people in Puerto Rico.

“It’s true because I say it is” isn’t support for your claimed conversations.

It has been reported elsewhere that PR's power company was and is bankrupt. Whitefish and one other company bid on the contract knowing they might not get paid and need federal bailout later on. They also required no deposit or upfront payments. These can be important in awarding contracts for large projects.

The subcontractors will get paid because Whitefish will take a loan with the contract as proof of future income to pay subcontractors. Whether Whitefish gets paid or not is another thing.

www.whitefishenergy.com...

Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, is based in Whitefish, Montana, servicing customers throughout the United States and now, proudly, Puerto Rico. WEH’s leadership and field management teams have proven track records and experience to execute on the most challenging projects. The Company’s extensive subcontractor relationships enable it to address projects at any scale while minimizing overhead and passing cost savings through to the client. Established in 2015, WEH is led by industry veteran Andy Techmanski who is a trained journeyman lineman with over 22 years of experience completing critical utility infrastructure projects worldwide. Techmanski is supported by a construction management team with decades of experience navigating mountainous terrain and difficult construction scenarios. Whitefish is backed by HBC Investments (HBC) and Flat Creek Capital (FCC), both based in Dallas, TX, and Comtrafo Transformers, based in Brazil. HBC is an investment firm that partners with strong management teams with proven track records, having successfully invested over $100mm in companies across various sectors. FCC is an investment fund focused on growth capital investments and has successfully invested in 12 portfolio companies since inception. Comtrafo produces distribution and power transformers, primarily focused on the energy and power industry.

seems like its a subsidiary/or partnered with much larger corporation? so id go with it having "more then two employees" plus if any one wants to help they can apparently ask to tag along at this link www.whitefishenergy.com...

www.washingtonpost.com... 9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.89fe6671f2e1

Whitefish said Monday that it has 280 workers in the territory, using linemen from across the country, most of them as subcontractors, and that the number grows on average from 10 to 20 people a day. It said it was close to completing infrastructure work that will energize some of the key industrial facilities that are critical to restarting the local economy. The power authority, also known as PREPA, opted to hire Whitefish rather than activate the “mutual aid” arrangements it has with other utilities. For many years, such agreements have helped U.S. utilities — including those in Florida and Texas recently — to recover quickly after natural disasters.

and

PREPA’s executive director, Ricardo Ramos, and a spokesman did not respond to emails asking why the utility didn’t activate the mutual-aid network. On a tour of the idled Palo Seco power plant, Ramos told reporters that Whitefish was the first company “available to arrive and they were the ones that first accepted terms and conditions for PREPA.” Ramos said that the utility is “completely content” with the work Whitefish is doing. “The doubts that have been raised about Whitefish, from my point of view, are completely unfounded,” he added, saying that concerns about Whitefish were probably spread by jealous competitors. Whitefish officials have said that the company’s expertise in mountainous areas makes it well suited for the work and that it jumped at the chance when other firms were hesitating over concerns about payment.

so seems they jumped on it complied with the contract regulations and have experience working in mountainous areas which should help out in PR