THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The governor of Puerto Rico has called for the cancellation of the Whitefish contract and the activation of the traditional mutual aid agreements with mainland utilities to restore electricity.

Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said that the contract was a distraction after critics in the electric power industry, Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency raised questions about whether the company, Whitefish Energy, was well equipped to respond to the hurricane damage.

Thirty-nine days after Hurricane Maria hit the territory, Rossello said that he would request assistance from Florida and New York under mutual aid arrangements that utilities traditionally activate to help other states during an emergency. About 80 percent of the people living on the island still have no electricity.

“As a result of the information that has been revealed and the need to protect the public interest, as governor I am asking the power authority to cancel the Whitefish contract immediately,” Rosselló said in an usual Sunday morning news conference at La Fortaleza, the governor’s mansion.

In tweets Sunday morning, Rosselló also called for additional measures to scrutinize contracting by the island’s power authority more carefully. Rosselló said there should be a “special outside coordinator” to monitor the utility’s purchases so we “can have more clarity in this process.”

The governor’s statements, however, added to the confusion about the oversight of the utility and the commonwealth, both of which are bankrupt. A financial oversight board Congress created for Puerto Rico is planning to go to a federal court this week to seek clear authority to examine contracts as small as $10 million. Just last week, the oversight board said it would use its authority to install its own emergency manager to pay closer attention to the day-to-day operations of the utility.

The governor also did not say how the utility would disentangle itself from the contract with Whitefish Energy.

When all is said and done, only Whitefish and Hinky Zinke can complain about the cancellation, if they aren't too busy trying to explain how it happened.