The tiny Montana company that won a huge Puerto Rico power contract has new damaging allegations on its hands


An energy company whose $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid was recently cancelled apparently overcharged the island's public power authority for various services, The New York Times reports. The tiny Montana-based company, Whitefish Energy Holdings, was founded in 2015 and employed only two people when it won its contract.
Although Whitefish paid electrical linemen from Florida hourly rates that ranged from $42 to $100, Prepa, Puerto Rico's public power company, was billed $319 an hour for these subcontractors, the Times discovered. Whitefish is additionally charging Prepa $412 a day for food and lodging for its workers and also apparently charged three times the standard rate for aviation fuel and double the rate for a helicopter rental, the Times reports, citing "people with knowledge of the Whitefish contract."
A spokesman for Whitefish told the Times that "simply looking at the rate differential does not take into account Whitefish overhead costs."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Whitefish's contract with Prepa was cancelled in late October, two days after the Federal Emergency Management Agency raised concerns about the bidding process and the price of the contract. The Montana-based company, which has also come under scrutiny for its connections to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, will continue doing repairs to Puerto Rico's power line until the end of November.
Meanwhile, Whitefish's contract with Prepa is being investigated by the FBI. Nearly two months after Hurricane Maria, only 48 percent of Puerto Rico has electricity.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.
-
Exploring Georgia's southern highlands
The Week Recommends Visit Javakheti, Georgia's 'lake district', and meet the last-remaining 'spirit wrestlers' in the region
-
Delivery drivers face continuing heat danger with Trump's OSHA pick
The Explainer David Keeling is the former head of UPS and also worked at Amazon
-
Is that the buzzing sound of climate change worsening sleep apnea?
Under the radar Catching diseases, not those ever-essential Zzs
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutiny
Speed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress code
speed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirement
speed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
-
Trump calls Amazon's Bezos over tariff display
Speed Read The president was not happy with reports that Amazon would list the added cost from tariffs alongside product prices
-
Markets notch worst quarter in years as new tariffs loom
Speed Read The S&P 500 is on track for its worst month since 2022 as investors brace for Trump's tariffs
-
Tesla Cybertrucks recalled over dislodging panels
Speed Read Almost every Cybertruck in the US has been recalled over a stainless steel panel that could fall off