Company With Controversial Contract to Help Puerto Rico Is Feuding with the Mayor of San Juan

[KelleyKramer]

Company With Controversial Contract to Help Puerto Rico Is Feuding with the Mayor of San Juan


http://time.com/4997772/san-juan-puerto-rico-whitefish-energy-holdings-carmen-yulin-cruz/

In the midst of backlash over its $300 million contract to restore Puerto Rico's power grid, Whitefish Energy Holdings is openly sparring with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
Whitefish has been under scrutiny ever since it signed a contract with Puerto Rico's semi-public power utility PREPA without a competitive bidding process. The company, based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's home state of Montana, was also only founded two years ago, and had just two full-time employees.

Cruz has voiced her own criticism of the company, saying the contract should be "voided right away" and calling the deal "alarming" in an interview with Yahoo News published Wednesday. She also called its efforts to restore power to Puerto Rico, where millions are still without electricity more than a month after Hurricane Maria battered the island, "inadequate," Yahoo reports.

On Wednesday, Whitefish fired back with a statement on Twitter. "We share the mayor's frustration with the situation on Puerto Rico," the company wrote, "but her comments are misplaced. ... We find her comments to be very disappointing and demoralizing to the hundreds of people on our team that have left their homes and families and have come here to help the people of Puerto Rico."
Cruz responded to the statement on Twitter, calling for transparency from Whitefish. From there, things got ugly, with Whitefish tweeting what many, including Cruz, interpreted as a threat to pull employees from the battered island.


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[.99center]

1. Has the world gone insane?

Carmen Yulín Cruz‏Verified account @CarmenYulinCruz

"If @WhitefishEnergy feels that asking for transparency is ”misplaced”, what are they afraid we will find."

Link to tweet

Whitefish Energy‏ @WhitefishEnergy
Replying to @CarmenYulinCruz

"We’ve got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city & 40 more men just arrived. Do you want us to send them back or keep working?"

Link to tweet

[SunSeeker]

2. Jesus. Is Whitefish having Trump write their tweets?

[stuffmatters]

3. !!

[KelleyKramer]

4. That's what I thought

It sure sounds a lot like Trump

And what a terrible move from a PR stand point (which also sounds a lot like Trump)

[Not Ruth]

5. Isnt Whitefish just 2 people that will needs months to hire contractors?

[Skittles]

8. oh make no mistake

these grifters had them lined up the moment that hurricane hit

[elehhhhna]

9. All 84 of them

[Not Ruth]

6. Cruz was not tweeting as a woman having an opinion

She was tweeting as the top politician in her political party, unless she was tweeting as a private citizen.

[BainsBane]

7. Trump keeps draining that swamp

and turning it into a rat-infested sewer.

[tanyev]

10. Seems like the 2 man company would be way too busy right now to get into Twitter spats.

Of course, it seems like the President of the United States would also be way too busy to get into Twitter spats, so there's that.