Media outlets are tying President Donald Trump to a shady deal giving a small, inexperienced utility company approval to fix Puerto Rico’s flattened infrastructure, but they’re forgetting a couple important details.
An executive with Whitefish Energy, the company that received a $300 million contract to help restore power to Puerto Rico, maxed out donations to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to a report Tuesday from The Daily Beast. The report, however, neglected to mention the circumstances surrounding Puerto Rico’s move to give Whitefish the contract.
The Daily Beast’s report noted that Federal Elections Commission data shows Joe Colonnetta, who founded the private firm that finances Whitefish, contributed $20,000 to the Trump Victory PAC during the election, and more than $5,000 to the president’s primary and general election campaigns. His wife also gave $33,400 to the Republican National Committee, the maximum contribution permitted for party committees.
The company is based in Whitefish, Mont., home of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Whitefish chief executive Andy Techmanski and Zinke acknowledge knowing one another, but only because Whitefish is a small town where “everybody knows everybody,” according to an email from Zinke’s office.
The contract appears to have been awarded during the chaos that ensued after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico. An employee with Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority (PREPA) who had a satellite phone and phone number called Whitefish following the hurricane, according to a report from E&E News earlier this month.
PREPA apparently had access to the phone number because the company issued a request for proposals when Hurricane Irma caused minor damage to the island two weeks earlier.
Whitefish was one of the only companies to respond to the request. The timing left PREPA scrambling to vet Whitefish, a 2-year-old company from Montana with only two employees before Maria hit.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ordinarily provides money for disaster relief, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees the recovery efforts. Neither agency had a role in awarding or supervising the contract Puerto Rico awarded to restore its power lines, leaving many wondering how Puerto Rico’s power company managed to skip the usual channels.
The American Public Power Association typically hosts a conference call after disaster recruiting the needed line workers to the stricken areas under what are called mutual aid agreements. The power association, for instance, deployed thousands of workers and equipment to Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey and Irma struck.
PREPA told the association that it wouldn’t need the network’s help because it had already contracted with Whitefish Energy Holdings to spearhead the restoration. Coordination between the two entities was sparse and not very reliable after the hurricanes destroyed communication lines.
“It’s a bit unclear why PREPA chose to go down that route, especially considering the offer was made to them for this mutual aid from the American Public Power Association that apparently wasn’t taken advantage of,” Cathy Kunkel, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told reporters at The Weather Channel Tuesday.
It might have been “reasonable” to try to act quickly given the devastation, she said, but the appointed board overseeing the island’s finances should obtain “a copy of that contract and do oversight on how that money was spent” to determine if U.S. taxpayers aren’t getting bamboozled.
Still, lawmakers are questioning the size of the contract and the fact that Whitefish got the okay to take the lead on fixing the infrastructure. The House Committee on Natural Resources is examining Whitefish’s role in Puerto Rico, said Parish Braden, a spokesman for the committee.
“The size and unknown details of this contract raises numerous questions,” Braden said. “This is one of many things the committee is taking a close look at as it continues to work with the resident commissioner, governor’s office, and oversight board to ensure Puerto Rico’s recovery is robust, effective and sustained.”
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