Whitefish is a middle man outfit, we always called them 15%ers-Whitefish may be nearing 50%.
Their qualifications have no bearing on the contracted work other than to pass on the money after their healthy cut is taken.
All of their combined contracts in their combined history don’t equal 10% of this mega-contract that just happens to be way out there in the ocean, surrounded by water, lots and lots of water.
According to Preznident Dumbo, that’s a real toughie.
If this deal doesn’t stink of grift and graft, I’m not sure what does.
The only point I’m making about the Puerto Rico electrical infrastructure is that it was based on a very old technology. It sounds like they’ve been able to do wonders with it, but there were reports early on that one of the problems with bringing in the usual crews from other power companies was that none of them would have experience with the kind of equipment that was prevalent on the island. It sounds like Puerto Rico electrified early and hasn’t had to face the kind of destructive storms they now have to recover from. Unlike most US states, they haven’t had to rebuild their grid after hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes or ice storms knock it out, so their technology is behind the curve. Not to mention that thanks to the US Congress, they’ve been screwed over financially for the last twenty years, so they haven’t been able to afford to do upgrades.
More than a quarter of a million people in Michigan’s richest county have to boil their drinking water this week. If you haven’t heard, that’s because a four-foot wide water transmission line apparently broke in Farmington Hills Monday night.
This has gotten a lot of publicity, far more so, say, than the Flint water crisis in its early stages. If you are a poor person of color in Flint, you might think this is because the people affected now are far more affluent, better connected, and nearly all white.
We got a moving company that started out here where I live called “Two Guys and a Truck”…Its basically that.
This company Zinke got for PR (because of cronyism and familial ties) subcontracts. You know what that means…When shit goes wrong, its not the company’s fault that’s forced to take responsibility, its the subcontractors, that will scurry like cockroaches after they each independently claim bankruptcy, never to be heard from or seen again.
I am not dismissing your thoughtful points. I think that any argument that Puerto Rico’s electrical grid structure is antiquated needs to prove it. My family lived in Puerto Rico from 1962 to 1982. There was a huge construction boom during those years and it has continued pretty much unabated as more people have moved to previously remote places which are now commutable to San Juan Metro Area by virtue of a highway system that has continued to modernize (and is still obsolete given the sheer number of drivers whenever a given project is completed). The new construction all required and continue to require electrical infrastructure. So maybe it is true that some generating plants may be obsolete technology or new grafted on old. There is a real problem even certifying that the Palo Seco Generating Plant outside of San Juan can be repaired because of deterioration of critical equipment (which the electrical workers union disputes). But I assume that most US States still generate most of their electricity from oil. And you would have to tell me which US States you think have spanking brand new electrical grids. We know that the entire Northeast US does not. We know that the lower Manhattan hub of the financial universe does not. I am not denying that PR’s electrical service was plagued with outages going back to the 70s and lots of people already own generators for that reason.
The other thing having to do with the strength of the recent hurricanes is that I am not aware of an electrical or road or housing infrastructure in the USA that could withstand 8-10 hours of 100-155 mph wind and 52 inches of driving rain. We know the infrastructure in NY and NJ could not withstand 80 plus mph wind and the attendant rain from a Category 1 in 2012. The Mayor of Toa Baja PR gave an interview last weekend in El Nuevo Dia and basically said, nobody alive now remembers the 1928 Category 5 hurricane and nobody could have been prepared, really, for that type of storm scoring a direct hit.
Whitefish Energy has responded to Mayor Cruz’s statements about the contract via Twitter. Newspaper El Vocero, which leans Right and to Governor Rosello’s party and against Mayor Cruz’s party, published a very ecumenical article, one could say almost favorable to Mayor Cruz, about the Twitter battle and the social media reaction by PR and other Twitter users.
Well, my only personal experience with Puerto Rican infrastructure of all types is a couple of degrees of separation from yours. I’ve never been there but my brother-in-law has a lot of family there and spent a lot of time on the island until his mother died earlier this year. In other words, I’ve listened to him complain a lot. So you should consider my opinion in that light.
I think the basis of our disagreement (such as it is) is the word antiquated. I don’t consider infrastructure that may be based on technology that is a generation or two back to be antiquated. It can be absolutely brand spanking new and working well within specifications, but still difficult to work with for technicians who are trained on technologies that we have on the mainland. (Most of which got upgraded because it was destroyed in some storm or another already.) PR has been lucky not to have had that problem. But unlucky that it has now had the problem with the president* we are currently saddled with.
What you would hope is that Puerto Rico would be able to take the opportunity of the loss of their current grid to build a brand new infrastructure based on locally sited renewable technologies and underground transmission lines that will be resistant to the next storm. I’m afraid, though, that thanks to the recalcitrance of the current government they won’t get the resources they need to stand up emergency service, much less build out new resilient infrastructure of all sorts going forward. This crony deal with Whitefish being the first symptom.
I agree with everything you say except for one thing. I dont agree that on the Mainland electric grids have been modernized because of storms or any other reason. But maybe i am wrong.
Your brother in law’s experience is probably more recent than mine. I have not visited regularly since the 90s and my last visit was in 2009. However, I do have family and friends who complain as well… In the 70s my family lived in a new construction middle income housing development in Guaynabo with a large baseball field, basketball courts, playground and walking/jogging track. Right beyond the park was an area known as Garden Hills, on a slight elevation. So, when we had one of our regular electrical outages, you could always see that in the distance and up the hills, the other location had their lights on. And people have been buying generators for the outages for a long time.
And I do think Sinclair “News” and Donald Trump have been spreading the infrastructure problems as an excuse for his typical unprepared, miserly, crass, and feckless response to the Category 4-5 storms.
