Former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, right, shakes hands with Portland General Electric President and CEO Peggy Fowler after announcing the company's sale on Tuesday. AP Photo

PORTLAND (AP) - The new face of utility management in Oregon is a familiar one - former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt said Tuesday he is leading a deal to buy back Portland General Electric from bankrupt Enron Corp.

"The time has come to end this too long period of uncertainty, and to declare our independence from the control of an energy conglomerate whose actions have led to that uncertainty," Goldschmidt said at a news conference.

The deal, more than a year in the making, already has been approved by the Enron board and by a committee of creditors, but still must pass muster with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in New York, along with state and federal regulators.

Ironically, it is another Texas company riding to the rescue of the oldest and largest utility in Oregon after Houston-based Enron bought it amid protest in 1997.

Texas Pacific Group, a private investment group, is brokering the estimated $2.35 billion deal and putting up most of the capital needed to restore PGE to local ownership in Oregon.

Mayor Vera Katz said the city, which made its own bid for PGE, plans to meet with Texas Pacific to make sure the proposed deal offers stability, fair electric rates and local control.

"The city is going to wait and see if our questions are answered," Katz said, "but this is better news than we've been hearing over the last year."

Goldschmidt, however, said most of that savings would come from eliminating corporate taxes that would otherwise fund schools and local government. The city would not have to pay taxes on PGE property if it took over the utility.

"There's no free lunch," Goldschmidt said.

A ballot measure to create a public utility district in Multnomah County failed nearly 3-to-1 earlier this month after Goldschmidt and other prominent Oregon leaders joined PGE in a campaign to defeat it.

Goldschmidt said he will be one of three general partners in a new company called Oregon Electric Utility Co., based in Portland and controlled locally but backed by Texas Pacific investors.

The former governor, who also was mayor of Portland and transportation secretary in the Carter administration, will be joined by Gerald Grinstein and Tom Walsh to oversee the repurchased PGE, which will keep its name and maintain its Portland headquarters and work force.

Grinstein is the former chairman of Burlington Northern, Delta Air Lines and Agilent Technologies. Walsh is the former head of Tri-Met, the regional transit authority, and has served as chairman of the Oregon Board of Forestry and as vice chairman of the Oregon Transportation Commission.

PGE was founded in 1889 with completion of the first long-distance electricity transmission line in the nation. It now serves more than 750,000 customers in Oregon and southwest Washington state.