Last week, Whitefish Energy raised eyebrows after reports surfaced that the tiny Montana-based electric company had won the $300 million contract to restore power to Puerto Rico. With only two full-time employees – a size that suggests it is ill-equipped to handle a massive undertaking like repairing Puerto Rico’s energy grid – and ties to the Trump administration, many critics and industry analysts have suggested that Whitefish did not come by this contract through an ethical, competitive bidding process.
Among these critics is San Juan’s outspoken mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who in many ways has become the voice of the outraged Puerto Rican populace. “The contract should be voided right away, and a proper process which is clear, transparent, legal, moral, and ethical should take place,” she told Yahoo News.
Whitefish – taking a cue from our nation’s sentient cheeto president – decided to take this beef to the place where all conflict is handled in 2017: Twitter.
“We share frustration with Mayor Cruz on the situation in Puerto Rico, but her comments are misplaced,” the company tweeted in a statement.
But they tried it with the wrong person, because Carmen Yulín Cruz was ready with the clap backs:
That’s when Whitefish escalated the situation by threatening to remove their subcontractors, who have been on the ground for several weeks, from the island.
Their reaction elicited a firestorm on social media, with many pointing out that Whitefish seems willing to hang the lives of Puerto Ricans in the balance over petty Twitter beef.
https://twitter.com/erikaheidewald/status/923294721157447680
https://twitter.com/ezlusztig/status/923293784233799680
Yulín Cruz herself pointed out the politically-motivated nature of Whitefish’s comments:
Meanwhile, as all this drama unfolds online, 84% of the island is still without electricity and doctors are finding themselves forced to perform surgeries using cellphone flashlights for light.