Rick Scott to offer Puerto Rico more power restoration help

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been indispensable to Puerto Rico as it recovers from Hurricane Maria, and he will be making another trip to the commonwealth Friday.

Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello invited him earlier this month. The subject of particular concern is power restoration.

Rossello notes that “restoring electricity to our citizens has become a daunting task, mainly because of the lack of liquidity of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and the need for additional assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”

In that context, Rossello requested Scott to come back to the island, to “visit Puerto Rico to assess and issue recommendations to expedite energy restoration efforts.”

In recent days, the harshly criticized contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings — a two-person firm that attempted to rely on subcontractors to do the job — has finally been cancelled.

Scott, in Jacksonville Monday, framed the visit as part of a continuing dialogue with Gov. Rossello, regarding “what can we do to be helpful.”

Scott noted that, since the storm, 86,000 Puerto Ricans have come to Florida, and the state is committed to helping them with jobs, education, and other needs. 2,000 Puerto Rican students have already been absorbed into Florida’s school system, Scott said.

“In our state, we’ve got some wonderful utilities,” Scott said, “and we were able to do our restoration very quickly … they’re still fighting to get their restoration done.”

At least one Florida subcontractor — Jacksonville’s JEA — wants to continue staying on the job.

“On behalf of JEA, we are dedicated to the task at hand – making a meaningful contribution to the people of Puerto Rico by helping to get their electric system up and running as soon as possible. Our very talented and hard-working JEA crew members are in Puerto Rico now and working hard every day,” a JEA spokesperson asserted Monday morning.

“Whitefish was the available contracting vehicle when we extended the offer for our professionals to work.  As that circumstance changes, we will work with PREPA and anyone else that may be assigned to make this devastating situation better,” JEA added.