Hurricane Maria/Irma and Puerto Rico: 9/11 - Runway full of bottled water discovered untouched
- Thread starter DonFrancisco
- Start date
Whitefish Energy charged Puerto Rico $319 per hour for linemen — then paid them $63 per hour: report
On Sunday night, The New York Times reported that novice energy firm Whitefish Energy was wildly overcharging the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) for the hourly rate it paid line workers.
Whitefish Energy Holdings only had two employees when it was awarded a $300 million contract to restore electricity to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. To meet the shortfall, Whitefish hired contractors from Florida at rates varying from $42 per hour to $100 per hour with an average hourly rate of $63.
However, the company’s “shocking” contract allowed it to bill PREPA $319 per worker per hour.
The Times spoke to industry experts who said that $319 per hour is far, far above the norm about amounts to about 17 times what a Puerto Rican worker would make performing the same job.
Whitefish spokesman Chris Chiames told the Times that the company had to make the jobs competitive to attract labor from around the region.
“We have to pay a premium to entice the labor to come to Puerto Rico to work,” Chiames claimed, but declined to explain the average of $256 that was disappearing between PREPA’s payouts and the pockets of Whitefish’s linemen.
The company had its contract revoked after San Juan’s Mayor Carmen Julín Cruz challenged the company and called for transparency regarding Whitefish’s deal with the federal government.
Millions of Puerto Ricans had power restored briefly by Whitefish only to have the repaired line fail again this week, returning them to life without electricity. More than 80 percent of the island is still without electricity nearly two months after Hurricane Maria made landfall.
Read the full report here.
Whitefish Energy charged Puerto Rico $319 per hour for linemen — then paid them $63 per hour: report
On Sunday night, The New York Times reported that novice energy firm Whitefish Energy was wildly overcharging the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) for the hourly rate it paid line workers.
Whitefish Energy Holdings only had two employees when it was awarded a $300 million contract to restore electricity to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. To meet the shortfall, Whitefish hired contractors from Florida at rates varying from $42 per hour to $100 per hour with an average hourly rate of $63.
However, the company’s “shocking” contract allowed it to bill PREPA $319 per worker per hour.
The Times spoke to industry experts who said that $319 per hour is far, far above the norm about amounts to about 17 times what a Puerto Rican worker would make performing the same job.
Whitefish spokesman Chris Chiames told the Times that the company had to make the jobs competitive to attract labor from around the region.
“We have to pay a premium to entice the labor to come to Puerto Rico to work,” Chiames claimed, but declined to explain the average of $256 that was disappearing between PREPA’s payouts and the pockets of Whitefish’s linemen.
The company had its contract revoked after San Juan’s Mayor Carmen Julín Cruz challenged the company and called for transparency regarding Whitefish’s deal with the federal government.
Millions of Puerto Ricans had power restored briefly by Whitefish only to have the repaired line fail again this week, returning them to life without electricity. More than 80 percent of the island is still without electricity nearly two months after Hurricane Maria made landfall.
Read the full report here.
Whitefish Energy charged Puerto Rico $319 per hour for linemen — then paid them $63 per hour: report
Republican overseeing Puerto Rico finances bashes the island in bizarre racist slam
Andrew Biggs is a Republican member of PROMESA, a board created in 2016 to chaperone Puerto Rico’s finances in the wake of the island’s bankruptcy problems. Yet, when speaking about the recovery efforts, he compared those U.S. citizens to “drunks” who have “hit rock bottom.”
The Intercept reported Tuesday that, while speaking at an American Enterprise Institute event on the island and disaster relief, Biggs claimed fair treatment of workers is what is stopping Puerto Rico from recovery. He specifically cited minimum wage laws, labor rules surrounding just-cause termination, paid sick days for staff, paternity leave and overtime. Even a planned Christmas bonus is stopping Puerto Rico from greatness, according to Biggs.
“The reality is, the government doesn’t want to do these things,” he said of labor laws. “If you let them not do them, they won’t do them.” If the island were to be given additional aid from Congress, Biggs argued that it should come with strings attached demanding they kill their progressive labor laws.
“I mean, I don’t want to sound pejorative, but I hope this would be like the alcoholic who hits rock bottom and who says, ‘OK, we’re bankrupt now, we really got to change the way we’re doing things,’” Biggs said.
Toward the end of the panel, AEI resident fellow Desmond Lachman said, “One doesn’t want a good crisis to go to waste.” He explained “other countries” have sought support from the International Monetary Fund when they hit “rock bottom” after a natural disaster. Given that Puerto Rico isn’t its own country, IMF funding would have to be requested by the United States government. It would be similar to the state of Kansas being required to apply for IMF funding to bail them out after their budget crisis.
“They realize they don’t have an alternative,” Lachman said. He went on to say “all the difficult kind of reforms” are made “when their back is against the wall.”
The remarks less than a day after it was found that Whitefish Energy was charging more than triple the actual cost of linemen working to restore power.
Republican overseeing Puerto Rico finances bashes the island in bizarre racist slam
Andrew Biggs is a Republican member of PROMESA, a board created in 2016 to chaperone Puerto Rico’s finances in the wake of the island’s bankruptcy problems. Yet, when speaking about the recovery efforts, he compared those U.S. citizens to “drunks” who have “hit rock bottom.”
The Intercept reported Tuesday that, while speaking at an American Enterprise Institute event on the island and disaster relief, Biggs claimed fair treatment of workers is what is stopping Puerto Rico from recovery. He specifically cited minimum wage laws, labor rules surrounding just-cause termination, paid sick days for staff, paternity leave and overtime. Even a planned Christmas bonus is stopping Puerto Rico from greatness, according to Biggs.
“The reality is, the government doesn’t want to do these things,” he said of labor laws. “If you let them not do them, they won’t do them.” If the island were to be given additional aid from Congress, Biggs argued that it should come with strings attached demanding they kill their progressive labor laws.
“I mean, I don’t want to sound pejorative, but I hope this would be like the alcoholic who hits rock bottom and who says, ‘OK, we’re bankrupt now, we really got to change the way we’re doing things,’” Biggs said.
Toward the end of the panel, AEI resident fellow Desmond Lachman said, “One doesn’t want a good crisis to go to waste.” He explained “other countries” have sought support from the International Monetary Fund when they hit “rock bottom” after a natural disaster. Given that Puerto Rico isn’t its own country, IMF funding would have to be requested by the United States government. It would be similar to the state of Kansas being required to apply for IMF funding to bail them out after their budget crisis.
“They realize they don’t have an alternative,” Lachman said. He went on to say “all the difficult kind of reforms” are made “when their back is against the wall.”
The remarks less than a day after it was found that Whitefish Energy was charging more than triple the actual cost of linemen working to restore power.
Republican overseeing Puerto Rico finances bashes the island in bizarre racist slam
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
From No Power in Puerto Rico to Living in a Car in Orlando
Arrivals straining an already-tight market; ‘Don’t worry, Daddy. We’re not always going to be in a car.’
From No Power in Puerto Rico to Living in a Car in Orlando
Arrivals straining an already-tight market; ‘Don’t worry, Daddy. We’re not always going to be in a car.’
From No Power in Puerto Rico to Living in a Car in Orlando
Official Toll in Puerto Rico: 64. Actual Deaths May Be 1,052.
The Times’s analysis found that in the 42 days after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm, 1,052 more people than usual died across the island. The analysis compared the number of deaths for each day in 2017 with the average of the number of deaths for the same days in 2015 and 2016.
Officially, just 64 people died as a result of the storm that ravaged the island with nearly 150-mile-an-hour winds, cutting off power to 3.4 million Puerto Ricans. The last two fatalities were added to the death toll on Dec. 9.
“Before the hurricane, I had an average of 82 deaths daily. That changes from Sept. 20 to 30th. Now I have an average of 118 deaths daily,” Wanda Llovet, the director of the Demographic Registry in Puerto Rico, said in a mid-November interview. Since then, she said on Thursday, both figures have increased by one.
Data for October are not yet complete, and the number of deaths recorded in that month is expected to rise. Record-keeping has been delayed because Puerto Rico’s power grid is operating at less than 70 percent of its capacity and swaths of the island still do not have power.
Recca Gatsby
LWO
Is it getting ANY better ove rthere?
Dear god imagine the devastation next hurricane season when they have nothing to protect the island with. 
How many people need to die? How is this not national news every single day? This is not happening in Cuba these people will be a US State one day.
How many people need to die? How is this not national news every single day? This is not happening in Cuba these people will be a US State one day.
Recca Gatsby
LWO
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Sad and fukked up like everything this admin does