UIL Holdings

Sensing that the corrupt Philadelphia City Council will not budget–will not even talk to UIL Holdings about their proposed $1.86 BILLION offer to purchase the municipal-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW)–the company has pulled the plug on the deal. It’s now officially 100% dead. Even though UIL has assured and reassured anyone who would listen that they won’t come in and fire the union workers, and that they would accelerate an already-ambitious schedule of upgrading PGW’s failing pipeline infrastructure, City Council members are stuck in the pockets of powerful unions and shadowy others in the background who opposed the deal. UIL has been more than patient. Philly’s dream of being an “energy hub” in the northeast is also dead along with the deal…
Read More “UIL Makes it Official: $1.86B Deal to Buy Phila. Gas Works is Dead”

The corrupt Philadelphia City Council continues to be, well, corrupt. Although UIL Holdings, the Connecticut utility company doing its darnedest to purchase the municipal owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), has told City Council that they are willing to amend the terms of sale originally worked out by Philly’s Mayor Michael Nutter–to address Council’s so-called “concerns.” UIL is bending over backwards, forwards, sideways–any way it can to make the deal happen. And the response from the corrupt City Council? Crickets. The deal expires Dec. 31 and it looks, as of right now, as if it’s dead…
Read More “PGW Sale Still on Life Support – Will City Council Pull the Plug?”

Can Philadelphia ever be THE energy of hub of the northeast? According to an editorial in the Philadelphia Daily News, City Council has ruined that possibility by scuttling the deal to sell Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to UIL Holdings (see Phila. City Council’s 6-Hour Hearing on PGW Sale, UIL Appearance). According to the editorial writers, City Council is focusing on retaining 1,600 (and shrinking) public sector union jobs at PGW instead of allowing the sale of PGW which potentially could lead to Philly becoming THE northeast energy hub employing 10 times that number of energy jobs…
Read More “PDN: City Council Ruined the Promise of Energy Hub in Philly”

More on the drama of the corrupt Philadelphia City Council’s scuttling of the sale of the municipal-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to Connecticut utility UIL Holdings. Yesterday City Council held hearings on alternatives to selling PGW and made a representative from UIL wait until the very end of six hours of hearings to give him 10 minutes to speak…
Read More “Phila. City Council’s 6-Hour Hearing on PGW Sale, UIL Appearance”

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) is the joint venture between The Carlyle Group and Sunoco (now part of Energy Transfer Partners) that owns and operates the Point Breeze and Girard Point oil refineries in Philadelphia–the largest such refining complex on the Eastern Seaboard. PES CEO, Philip Rinaldi, has weighed in on the corrupt Philadelphia City Council’s scuttling of the purchase of Philadelphia Gas Works (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). We suppose it’s understandable, but Rinaldi says precisely nothing in his comments beyond Mayor Michael Nutter is a great guy, but so too is City Council President Darrell Clarke, head of the cabal that scuttled the deal. As head of the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team which is attempting to position Philly has an “energy hub,” Rinaldi’s comments are of the tone “Why Can’t We Be Friends” (cue music). He hopes that Nutter and Clarke can start talking to one another again to get this deal done…
Read More “Phila. Energy Solutions Tells Mayor & City Council: Start Talking”

The corrupt Philadelphia City Council killed the sale of the municipally-owned Philadelphia Gas Works earlier this week (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). PGW is bleeding money and rates for residents are sky high, in no small part because they still buy their gas from the Gulf Coast instead of getting it from the nearby (and super cheap) Marcellus region in their own state! What’s next in the process? Philly’s Democrat Mayor, Michael Nutter, along with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC), haven’t quite given up on the deal–not yet. They’re bringing enormous pressure on council members to at least take a vote, something Council President Darrell Clarke has been unwilling to do. The PUC had been waiting to conduct hearings on PGW because of the impending sale. With the sale off, the PUC is turning up the heat and will hold hearings in the next two weeks to demand answers from PGW (and Council) on how they’ll fix the mess they’ve created…
Read More “Mayor Nutter, State PUC Attempt CPR on Dead PGW Deal”

With an eye on its proximity to abundant and cheap natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale, UIL Holdings Corporation, a Connecticut-based investor-owned gas and electric utility holding company, yesterday announced that it has reached an agreement to to buy Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), currently owned by the City of Philadelphia, for $1.86 billion in cash. PGW is the nation’s largest municipally-owned natural gas utility. Last summer MDN told you that PGW was up for sale and that the Marcellus may well be the key to a sale (see Phila. Gas Works Goes on Auction Block – Marcellus Key in Sale?). Looks like our words ended up being prophetic, because UIL says the Marcellus/Utica is part of the reason why they want to buy PGW.

There had been talk that one PGW’s facilities could be turned into an LNG export terminal, but that idea seemed to be shot down later and hasn’t been mentioned since (see Consultant: Retooling PGW LNG Terminal for Exports Problematic). Still, this is a great day for PGW and its future. But the sale won’t happen without a fight. Even though UIL says they will honor labor union contracts already in place, the unions are staking out a position against the sale and intend to exert influence on Philadelphia City Council members who must approve such a sale. Here’s the announcement from UIL, and an update from the Philly Inquirer about opposition to the sale…
Read More “Phila. Gas Works Deal for $1.86B – Marcellus/Utica One of Keys”