TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A state senator thinks that the generator plan taking shape in the Florida legislature is a cave-in to the petroleum retailing industry, reported The News-Press.
When Hurricane Wilma left millions of South Floridians waiting at gasoline pumps with no power last October, politicians pledged to make sure gas stations could re-open quickly after future storms.
The Senate Community Affairs Committee advanced a leadership-backed plan Tuesday to require somebut not allstation owners wire their stores to run on [image-nocss] generators so they can sell gasoline within 24 hours after a hurricane. But State Senator J. Alex Villalobos (R) accused gasoline retailers at the hearing of putting profits ahead of an outraged public. People want gas at the pump. They don't care about your problems, Villalobos told industry lobbyists, according to the report.
The Senate sponsor, Steve Geller (D), and the retailers said requiring every station to spend $60,000 to $100,000 to install enough generator power to run their stores would be too great a financial strain. We would be tied up in lawsuits for years, and I'm not sure we'd win this, Geller said. You don't have to have every gas station operational.
Disruptions in the gasoline supply pipeline will be unavoidable in future storms, mainly because Florida depends on barges to ship in the 25 million gallons of motor fuel it consumes daily and ports have to shut down 72 hours ahead of storms, the report said.
The bill lets companies that own 10 or more stations in one county to buy only one generator for each 10 stores, and the generators themselves can be stored up to 250 miles away. Industry lobbyists said that would let companies rotate their generators from store to store until gasoline already in the ground sells out.
Every station built after July 1 would have to be wired for generators, however. Only existing stations within a half-mile of interstates or hurricane evacuation routes would have to be upgradeda compromise Jim Smith, president of the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores Association, said was both a financial and practical one.
If we put a generator in every store it would give the citizens a sense that everything is normal, when the situation would be far from normal, Smith said. It takes five to seven days to get back to normal after a hurricane makes landfall.
Geller said as many as one in five stations in Florida are already equipped with generators, and that when the law takes effect in 2007, that would increase to about one in four stations.
But Villalobos, who voted against the bill, said that equipping only a few stations with generators would create chaos in populous counties when people try to re-fuel their cars. That's the difference between 10 people in front of you in line and 100 people, Villalobos said.
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