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Hearing impaired

City Council's hearings on Philadelphia's energy future should be quite a show, rich with spectacle and irony. The hearings, expected to start today and continue Friday, are in lieu of real consideration of a $1.86 billion deal to sell the Philadelphia Gas Works to Connecticut-based UIL Holdings Corp. Council's schedule coincides with state Public Utility Commissi

City Council's hearings on Philadelphia's energy future should be quite a show, rich with spectacle and irony.

The hearings, expected to start today and continue Friday, are in lieu of real consideration of a $1.86 billion deal to sell the Philadelphia Gas Works to Connecticut-based UIL Holdings Corp. Council's schedule coincides with state Public Utility Commission hearings on PGW's high rates and rotting pipes, so Council members clearly want the attention - and voters should provide it, especially since they're all up for reelection next year.

Rather than giving the UIL proposal an airing to acquaint ratepayers with its flaws and strengths, Council President Darrell Clarke has decided to lock the public out. The assumption is that the people who elected Council don't know the difference between reality and theater. And not one Council member had the courage to contradict Clarke by introducing a bill to trigger hearings on the deal.

Council members have attempted to justify their summary rejection of the deal by pouting that Mayor Nutter shut them out of the process. That is a dodge. Council members and key staff attended meetings on the issue over the last two years. Clarke even attended a meeting with the six finalists from which UIL was chosen and was invited to help select the broker. (He declined.) And he had ample time to address any perceived failure to seek his input.

He also had plenty of opportunities to point out any problems with the deal - such as its impact on the city's poorest ratepayers - as well as a responsibility to come up with solutions. Council could certainly push for more poverty assistance during real hearings. Prior Councils understood how to do that.

Perhaps the Council president has another suitor for PGW in mind. But what reputable company would get involved after Council refused to even grant a hearing to a qualified company that invested $20 million in the process?

Also at work here is Clarke's rivalry with Nutter. Clarke is toying with the idea of running for the mayor's job, but sometimes he seems to think he's already been hired.

None of this should distract from the fact that if this is a good deal for the city, Council is obligated to take it. And a sale of PGW offers a rare opportunity to offset pension obligations that threaten to drain the city's coffers. The proceeds could help free up money for essential services like public safety and health, as well as quality-of-life services like libraries and recreation.

Additionally, UIL could reduce or defer future PGW rate hikes, according to Council's own consultant. The company has promised not to lay off gas workers for three years and has guaranteed pension and health-care benefits. And it plans to replace aging pipes at a faster pace, which would not only address serious safety concerns but also create more jobs for union workers.

Council isn't interested in any of that, though. Instead, it's looking into making the city an "energy hub," the working title of today's farce. But this performance isn't likely to draw much of a crowd to Philadelphia.