City to pay penalites for leaky underground tanks while oil companies get bail out

In response to the last Council meeting, the headlines on www.lbreport.com proclaim: Previous City Hall Non-Responsive Response To State Agency On Underground Storage Tanks = $1.7 Million Fine (And More) For City Taxpayers...So What Happened?

Publisher Bill Pearl goes on in the article to state:This isn't about storage tanks. It's about a lack of Council oversight and managerial accountability with public money.

Well folks, the council had nothing to do with the leaky tanks. I first learned of them when I came into council and was told in a closed session that we had a problem and were facing millions of dollars in fines. I dare say most councilmembers were shocked to learn that we had the tanks. From what management told us -- the persons who should have been responsible for monitoring and repairing the tanks are no longer with the city.

Was this a lack of Council oversight? I don't think so. We are part-time and short of us and our staff going out to each department of the city and checking what they do or don't do, there are some things we aren't going to know until it becomes a problem. I can just hear the screaming about micro-managing if we did that.

But the bigger story out there that hasn't been covered is the fact the city of Long Beach has to pay to clean up those leaky tanks (in which they stored fuel for City vehicles) and the oil companies who own gas stations receive a bail out from the taxes we pay when we buy gasoline to clean up when their underground leak.

Here's how it works -- you and I pay 14 cents at the pump for each 10 gallons we pump -- which goes into a fund to be used to clean up leaky underground storage tanks. The oil companies have collected $490 million from the fund to clean up their leaky storage tanks.

Senator Alan Lowenthal carried legislation last year that Gov. Schwarzenegger signed that extended this largess to the oil companies. (The fund was originally set up to help small mom and pop gas stations, especially in rural areas.)

Meanwhile, back in Long Beach, we have to pay a fine for not having cleaned the tanks up sooner.

The oil companies contributed millions in campaign contributions to get this special treatment by Sacramento. Hard to compete with that, taxpayers.