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."
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.
-
Does depopulation threaten humanity?Talking Points Falling birth rates could create a 'smaller, sadder, poorer future'
-
New White House guidance means federal employees could be hearing more religious talk at workThe Explainer Employees can now try to persuade co-workers of why their religion is 'correct'
-
Real-life couples creating real-deal sparks in the best movies to star IRL partnersThe Week Recommends The chemistry between off-screen items can work wonders
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress codespeed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirementspeed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
