I have a new phrase du jour: "Let governments be governments". This is pretty much the exact situation. A mistake (corrupt or incompetent) was made. Admit it. Then end the contract.

Now governments should honour contracts negotiated earlier in good faith, but there has to be a level of "oh come on" about that honouring.

Here everyone's reputations would be enhanced if a meeting occurred where the CEO of Goldman? / Abu Dabi and the Mayor plus maybe a federal rep (pretty high up maybe White House Chief staff) sit down and basically threaten the investors with no more deals in USA unless they hand back the meters.

Everyone gets to look like winners - the government looks like real government and the investors get a profit and look like the kind of big shots only white house can deal with.

And then we learn to actually scrutinise these deals that happen every day across towns across the west and ask - why? Don't sell the family silver, build strong towns, tax sensible levels, and trust in your city.