The District’s Public Service Commission on Thursday approved the $6.4 billion acquisition of WGL Holdings Inc., the parent company of Washington Gas, by Canadian company AltaGas — with some additional conditions.
The approval comes after the energy companies reached a settlement agreement in May with the Office of the People’s Counsel, the District government, the Department of Defense, a series of unions and other interested parties.
The approval includes additional conditions to address what the PSC said called concerns related to the combined company’s credit rating, cybersecurity and reliability. The PSC has yet to release the full order with the specific terms.
The energy companies and the settling groups have five days to review the final order and agree to it. Shares in both WGL (NYSE: WGL) and AltaGas, which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, are up slightly in Friday morning trading.
The settlement terms still include:
*$20.5 million for one-time bill credits to residential customers and $5.4 million for nonresidential customers.
*$4.2 million for energy efficiency and energy conservation initiatives for low-income customers.
*$13 million in public benefits, such as education and training and increases in charitable giving.