"PGW is required by both state law and city ordinance to pursue a least-cost procurement policy in order to benefit our ratepayers with a stable supply of natural gas at the lowest possible cost," he said in written statement.
Councilman Curtis Jones, who sympathizes with anti-drilling activists and organized Tuesday's hearing before joint Council committees on transportation and public utilities and the environment, has contemplated directing PGW to boycott natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to express the city's displeasure with gas drilling.
Pennsylvania's shale-gas boom has generated an abundance of economic and industrial activity; the Marcellus geologic formation lies about a mile beneath half the state. But it also has produced worrisome environmental damage, social conflict, and political turmoil.
City Council appears to have limited legal means to influence drilling activity in areas outside its jurisdiction. The nearest drilling is taking place more than 100 miles from the city limits.
In March, Council passed a resolution objecting to drilling in the Delaware River basin, from which Philadelphia and many communities in the region draw their drinking water. That resolution, which passed unanimously with no public debate, was a symbolic gesture without legal weight.
Tuesday's hearing - attended by about 200 people, including many waving placards - was an opportunity for Council to gather more facts about Marcellus Shale drilling, which depends on a controversial extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
