Inside Report for Sept. 22, 2008

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Sep 22, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Metro Councilman Wayne Carter generated more than a little attention with his proposal to provide local gas stations with emergency power sources so they can function in the aftermath of storms such as Hurricane Gustav.

At the recent Press Club of Baton Rouge debate for mayoral candidates, Carter cited the need to provide gas stations with generators in order to avoid the lengthy lines that were common in East Baton Rouge Parish immediately after Gustav.

During a Metro Council meeting two days later, Mayor-President Kip Holden’s top administrator said that a number of gas stations in the Baton Rouge area were offered state-provided generators during the blackout caused by Gustav, but turned them down because of the high operating costs.

Walter Monsour, the mayor’s chief administrative officer, said the state purchased generators for emergency use and offered them to grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies and ice plants.

Carter was stunned to hear the gas stations refused the generators due to their high operating costs. “If we have gas stations turning down generators because they aren’t making enough money, we need to change the way we do business,” Carter said.

Carter said the most unpleasant aspect of the storm for him was waiting for hours in gas lines that extended for miles from the few stations that had power to dispense fuel. Carter said the main reason that he was in line was to keep the generator running at his home.

A close second in terms of storm-related unpleasantness for Carter was “toting” sewage from neighbors’ homes where the power outage caused sewage to back up after the storm.

Sewage backup could have been avoided by providing each of the three city-parish sewage plants and lift stations with generators, Carter said. Monsour noted that plans are already in the works to spend $35 million on emergency generators for the sewer system as part of the massive rehabilitation effort.

Another storm-related issue that arose during the Press Club mayoral forum dealt with proposals to bury power lines in order to avoid the widespread power outages that occurred after Gustav. All four candidates on the Oct. 4 ballot expressed concern about the high cost of underground utilities, but some were more supportive of the idea than others.

Republican Dan Kyle said burying all utility lines would likely be cost prohibitive, but noted that running the main transmission grid underground might be worth exploring. “That way, all they would have to do in an outage was to fix the connections from the grid out to the individual sections of the city,” Kyle said.

Holden, a Democrat, agreed with Kyle’s assessment, noting that burying all power lines would cost about $30,000 per household.

Fellow Democrat Don Johnson said he thinks underground power lines should be mandatory for critical-care facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes. Long-term, underground utilities are a good idea, he said.

“Look at the money that was spent on reconnecting all of the lines after Gustav. That money could have been used to put our systems underground,” Johnson said.