Legislators Considering Bills That Would Require Generators At Gas Stations

Should gas stations and senior housing facilities be required to carry a generator in case of emergencies? Should the state provide a generator for each municipality to be used at a gas station in the event of serious electrical outages?

In the wake of a rare October snowstorm that has left and knocked out 100 percent of Connecticut Light & Power customers in more than 50 towns, State Representatives Bruce “Zeke” Zalaski and Matthew Lesser said something needs to be done to protect residents from being left in the dark.

That’s why the two democrats are asking state lawmakers to consider legislation that would provide guarantees that should a town lose power again, gas stations would remain open and capable of servicing residents in each town.

“This has been a trying event for residents across the state,” said Zalaski (D-Southington). “The first couple days after the storm, the lines were so long that people were comparing it to the embargo of the 1970’s. When I was younger, I remember people waiting in line to put gas in their cans. I felt we were back in those days.”

Residents in Southington saw a 70 percent outage across the community at it’s peak, according to data from Connecticut Light & Power, but other communities throughout the state were affected by 100 percent blackouts.

Zalaski said he’s spoken with legislators in those towns and learned that some people traveled for hours in search of an open gas station. Meanwhile, seniors who didn’t have the means to travel long distances were left worrying about whether they could survive.

That, Zalaski said, is unacceptable.

When the legislature goes back into session in February, Zalaski said he would be proposing a bill to require all gas stations and senior housing facilities to carry a back-up generator.

“It’s a small price to pay to be able to have protections in place,” Zalaski said. “We can’t rely on (CL&P) to have power back within a day, so this is a proactive step to make sure we are prepared as a state.”

Lesser (D-Middletown) isn’t sure that the state needs to go to the extent of mandating every gas station has a generator, but said he agrees action needs to be taken.

The Legislative Energy and Technology Committee member said Thursday that he intends to make a proposal of his own, asking lawmakers to consider a proposal that would provide one generator to each municipality for the purpose of keeping a gas station open in every town during extreme outages.

Under his proposal, the town would have the ability to determine which station would use the generator and could even have businesses bid for it if there is interest from more than one station.

“It’s not something to bail out gas stations,” Lesser said. “If there isn’t a station open in the entire community, it’s a public safety issue. Without electricity, people need access to gas to power their own generators, fill their cars and get their lives back to as normal as possible.”

State Rep. Bill Wadsworth (R-Farmington) said after has experienced, Lesser’s proposal is something that Farmington officials have been discussing at length, but the real focus should be on making sure this type of outage never happens again

CL&P outage data showed that as of 10 p.m. Thursday night, 94 percent of the town’s CL&P customers were still left in the dark and Wadsworth said he “highly doubted” that the utility company would be able to meet it’s goal of restoring 99 percent by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.

“Discussing emergency generators at gas pumps is reactive to a situation that shouldn’t be happening at all. What I am seeing (in Farmington) is a need to address how to deal with CL&P and it’s a statewide issue,” Wadsworth said. “There are clear problems that have been revealed and that needs to be addressed.”

State Rep. Rob Sampson (R-Southington) was also critical of the CL&P response and said although the state was negatively affected by both Hurricane Irene and the recent snowstorm, it was important not to be reactive to the events.

An advocate for smaller government, Sampson said the state should not be responding by placing additional mandates on private businesses or taking responsibility for response costs by investing in generators. People have done well to take care of one another during and after the recent storm, he said, and having government hold their hand isn’t a solution.

Sampson said legislators should instead be stepping back to find out what went wrong to cause so many outages and take proactive measures to prevent further emergencies like the recent one from happening in the first place.

“The solution is no doubt on the prevention side of things. If we’d had a little more prevention, whether it be cutting tree limbs or moving electrical wires away from trees, we might have seen a different result,” Sampson said. “That should be the focus moving forward.”

While there are many possible actions that could be taken following the latest string of problems, State Sen. Joe Markley (R-Southington) said right now, the state needs to remain focused on the task at hand.

The proposals suggested cannot be taken up before February and all the facts of the latest response by CL&P have not all come out just yet, Markley said. It could be prudent to consider generators, or there may be a different solution, he said.

“I understand the frustration people have had, I lived it. I sat at a gas station for an hour on Monday myself,” Markley said. “Right now we need to focus on getting power back. Once that is complete, you can be sure we will sit down and go over all the facts to determine what went wrong and the best course of action to prevent these problems in the future.”