The firm plans to charge Uncle Stupid more than $300 an hour for a subcontracted lineman and $462 an hour for a subcontracted supervisor. (Subcontractors will make up the bulk of its work force, since — let’s repeat — the firm has two full-time employees.) The company will also charge about $400 per worker in per diem food and housing costs. A former Department of Energy official calls the arrangement “odd.”

Indeed.

No real work force, no experience in comparable government projects, and a job that is, by itself, about 300 times the firm’s reported revenue — what gives? The official explanation is that Whitefish has experience working in the mountains, and Puerto Rico has mountains. There was no formal bidding process.