After scare, Clayton wants fuel center

After narrowly avoiding running out of gas for police, Clayton County officials are calling for more state intervention and a regional fuel center for metro-area governments.

Wednesday, a truck delivered 4,000 gallons of fuel to Clayton County to help police, fire and other county services continue.

County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said he anticipates another 4,000-9,000 gallons to be delivered today.

The Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority secured the gas for Clayton after county officials said the county was about to run dry.

Jill Stuckey, director of GEFA’s Energy Innovation Center, has spent the past two weeks begging fuel companies to deliver to local governments and school systems from Clayton to south Georgia.

Bell said he is grateful for the state’s assistance, but it shouldn’t have gotten to that point.

Wednesday, Bell asked the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia and the Atlanta Regional Commission to look into building a regional fuel center.

This would allow metro-area governments, law enforcement and school systems to unite and buy fuel as a region to prevent the possibility of running dry in disasters like the one that followed Hurricane Ike.

It also would prevent counties from competing against each other for the limited fuel available and lower prices, Bell said.

“Instead of buying 20,000 gallons here or 10,000 gallons there, we would buy 100,000 gallons and get it a whole lot cheaper,” Bell said. “We would then use our own regional transfer trucks to make deliveries.”

The Association of County Commissioners of Georgia is looking at potential legislation to allow the region to create joint purchasing agreements for fuel, spokesman Matthew Hicks said.

In the meantime, Bell is asking for more state regulation to assure that public safety vehicles get priority over other gas consumers.

“I’m frustrated about this. I’m calling on the state to establish some standards where public safety gets the priority,” Bell said.

Bert Brantley, spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said the state would be willing to look at the benefits and cost of a regional fuel center, but didn’t think more state regulation was necessary.

“It’s hard to respond to an idea that fixes a problem we haven’t had,” Brantley said. “The state has consistently received these requests from police, law enforcement and school systems, and helped them identify supplies. I don’t know of any that have not been able to do their patrols or gone dry.”

While Clayton hasn’t run dry, it has come close.

Tuesday, the county had only enough fuel to last several more days, Bell said.

Without Wednesday’s delivery, the county was going to have to drastically slash services to allow police and fire to answer every 911 call, Bell said.

Even without cuts, the county would have lasted only a few more days before police would have to start prioritizing which calls could be answered.

“This is a disaster that impacts us. Although it did not hit us, we’ve had to make changes to the way we operate,” Bell said. “We need some help.”

Brantley pointed to other state interventions, such as obtaining the relaxed environmental standards and the state Department of Revenue allowing out-of-state haulers to apply for licenses to deliver fuel to Georgia.

As of Wednesday, Clayton had about 13,000 gallons of fuel, Bell said.

The county typically uses about 2,500 gallons of fuel daily, with about 80 percent going to law enforcement.

However, the county has been operating on about 2,000 gallons a day since the shortages started.