Councilmember Elissa Silverman speaks out against the merger. Behind her, from left to right, are At-large candidate Robert White, Councilmember Charles Allen, Ward 4 candidate Leon Andrews, Grid 2.0 co-founder Sherrill Berger, Ward 7 candidate Grant Thompson, David Grosso’s legislative director Katrina Forrest, and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh. (Photo by Rachel Sadon)

Part victory lap, part call to keep the pressure on, activists cheered the most recent developments in the will-they-or-won’t-they saga that the Pepco-Exelon merger has become.

“D.C. is ready to move on,” said Ward 8 activist Akili West at a press conference packed with community activists and journalists. “It is clear there is no way to get this deal done in a way that protects D.C. residents.”

The District’s Public Service Commission rejected the $6.8 billion merger for the second time last week. But in a twist, they offered an alternative set of conditions that all parties have 14 days to agree on.

Analysts deemed the terms “minor” and widely assumed that the deal would go through. But in yet another turn, the Attorney General, the D.C. Office of the People’s Counsel, and Mayor Muriel Bowser all came out in opposition to the revised settlement.

Opponents of the merger have hailed those decisions and called on the settling parties to “stay strong” in voting down the merger.

“We need to keep the pressure up,” said At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, praising the groups in attendance for their dogged efforts in opposing the deal. “The settlement did nothing to make it better, and it should be declared dead.”

Even more emphatically, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh called the whole deal “obscene” before leading the crowd in a chant of “Go Away Exelon.”

After calling the proposed merger “obscene,” @marycheh leads crowd in a chat of “Go away Exelon” pic.twitter.com/V2lTLRFsJK

— Rachel Sadon (@Rachel_Sadon) March 2, 2016

“It was outrageous,” Cheh said. “They spent millions of dollars on a PR campaign, lobbyists, lawyers. They went so far as to threaten non-profits… That’s the kind of company we would have been getting in bed with.”

Councilmember Charles Allen also spoke out against the merger and a spokeswoman for Councilmember David Grosso, who was at an education hearing, read a statement from him that called the deal a “divisive and expensive distraction.”

Three candidates—Robert White, who is running for an At-large seat; Leon Andrews, who is challenging Bowser protege Brandon Todd in Ward 4; and Grant Thompson, who is running against incumbent Yvette Alexander and former Mayor Vincent Gray in the Ward 7 race—also took the opportunity to publicly oppose the merger and put in a plug for themselves come the June 14 primary election.

But whether or not the deal is actually over remains to be seen.

“I think it’s dead, but I’m holding my breath,” Cheh told DCist, calling the situation a power play between the mayor’s office and the PSC. “I don’t want to underestimate money, power, and influence.”