Council President's Statement

City Council President Darrell L. Clarke had this to say:

"This year, the City Council of Philadelphia has learned a great deal about opportunities to enhance PGW's operations and to establish our city as the center of a regional energy hub. It is unfortunate that Mayor Nutter chose to pursue an extremely narrow deal to privatize PGW that ignores opportunities to increase Philadelphia's economic output. This deal would have resulted in significant job loss among Philadelphians by allowing UIL to lay off employees and to shift jobs away from experienced PGW workers, who are bound by residency requirements to live in our city, to less experienced workers from anywhere outside of Philly.

"Make no mistake, the failure of this deal is not the fault of UIL Holdings. The lack of sufficient jobs, consumer, and safety protections in this deal are a direct result of the Nutter administration's Request for Proposals, which was limited in scope and issued with no input from City Council. Such a shortsighted deal that did not address the concerns of the approving authority, in this case City Council, never had a chance of winning our endorsement. It is a shame that the administration did not make this clear to UIL earlier in the process. . . .

"The debate over PGW is one we should have as a city with all stakeholders at the table. The termination of this one particular sale agreement is not the end of this debate, which thanks to the legislative branch is now fully public, as it should have been all along. Once again, the Nutter administration has learned that the birthplace of American democracy has little tolerance for sweeping policy decisions made unilaterally with no input from the public. It is my sincere hope that our city will move forward on maximizing energy industry opportunities in a much more collaborative, inclusive, and thoughtful way."

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