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Lawmakers Change Tune on Gas-Pump Generators

Posted on: Thursday, 9 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By Marc Caputo, The Miami Herald

Mar. 9--TALLAHASSEE -- Five months after Hurricane Wilma blew through, the political will to require power generators at nearly every gas station has lost its spark in the Legislature.

State lawmakers said Wednesday it was too expensive, too risky and, according to some, too liberal a notion to force so many stations to invest in a product that costs up to $50,000 -- and that could be ruined along with the station during a hurricane.

Instead, lawmakers want to offer tax breaks for owners to re-wire their stations and make them ready for a generator trucked from a safe spot. Owners of 10 gas stations in a single county would be required to have one generator, and port operators and fuel distributors must have generators capable of pumping fuel for three days. Maximum tax credit: $15,000 per location.

Some Florida cities -- particularly Pembroke Pines and Hallandale Beach -- opposed the gas station bill because it didn't go far enough and prevents local governments from enacting tougher rules. Hallandale Beach, for instance, passed a gas-station generator law in the days after Wilma when Republican and Democratic lawmakers made big promises.

"This makes requirements for wiring at gas stations," said Lawrence J. Smith, a former Democratic congressman and a lobbyist for Hallandale and Pembroke Pines. "There's no mandate they be open. There's no mandate they pump gas. How can you have a bill that doesn't mandate you go into operation?"

PROMPT RESPONSE

The statement prompted a swift response from Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, a Miami Republican.

"A free market will dictate that," Diaz de la Portilla said, adding that he doesn't believe government should interfere with business. Diaz de la Portilla co-sponsored the bill that passed his domestic security committee Wednesday. A similar bill passed another House committee, as a number of lawmakers kvetched that they didn't like telling private business what to do, but didn't want to give tax handouts, either.

All the while, Smith raised the same objections: Too few people will get too little gas without enough generators.

The response: People should stay home, said David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council.

"This is not going to mean that we automatically have gas and that you should immediately go out on the road," Mica said. Instead, he said, the bill seeks to make a supply of gas available for an emergency situation.

REQUIREMENTS

According to a staff analysis, the bill requires:

-- Fuel distributors, such as those in Port Everglades, which supplies 40 percent of Florida's fuel, to have generators by Dec. 31 that can be turned on 36 hours after a storm and can operate for three days.

-- Generator-ready rewiring at gas stations that are a half-mile from state and federal highways or evacuation routes. Cost to rewire: up to $8,000.

-- Gas stations built or significantly renovated after July 1 to be generator ready.

-- Rewiring at stations with 16 or more pumps in large counties, such as Miami-Dade and Broward, and at stations with eight or more pumps in counties such as Monroe by Dec. 31. Cost to rewire a 10-pump station and equip it with a generator: About $65,000.

'LUCRATIVE BUSINESS'

"So this is a very lucrative new business?" asked Sen. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat. A lobbyist responded that it was profitable for electrical contractors, but that people "can't just have your neighbor do it."

Diaz de la Portilla laughed: "Obviously he doesn't live in Miami."

Later, the committee unanimously approved another Diaz de la Portilla hurricane-related bill, requiring 75-foot-tall condominiums to have generator-powered elevators. But he said it would be changed to provide subsidies to those buildings.

Joyce Goodman-Guenther, an attorney representing about 50 condominiums, said most new condominiums have generator-powered elevators and that no one opposes the idea. They just don't want to get stuck with a hefty new bill.

"If suddenly they hear they need to get something done and there's no resource to accomplish it, they'll panic," she said.

Herald staff writer Gary Fineout contributed to this story.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

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Source: The Miami Herald

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