PGW sale still on the back burner

The proposed sale of Philadelphia Gas Works to the private utility UIL Holdings Corp. has been on hold all summer.

Mayor Michael Nutter is pushing for City Council to act on the deal by the end of the year.

Waiting for a report from the consultant hired by City Council has bogged down an evaluation of the PGW deal, Nutter said Tuesday.

“Once a report is out at public hearings, I think it will become clear that this is a great deal for the city, for the workers, for the customers, and for the overall business environment,” he said. “Hopefully after seeing the report and the hearings … we would like to see final positive action on a bill before the end of the year.”

Nutter said he would use proceeds of the nearly $2 billion deal to refill the city’s pension accounts.

“I don’t know what it’s going to say,” the mayor said of the report. “But it puts City Council in a position to have a more engaged discussion about the proposal that was put forward, winter into spring, in terms of UIL and their proposed $1.86 billion purchase.”

Council members, however, appear to be in no rush.

 

President Darrell Clarke and Councilwoman Marian Tasco, an outspoken critic of the deal, declined comment through their representatives. No one on council has introduced a bill to sell the city-owned utility.