Forcing utilities to bury overhead lines is one of the more eye-catching – and expensive – suggestions City Council Speaker Christine Quinn put forth in a half policy, half campaign speech this morning.
Quinn, a likely candidate for mayor next year, delivered a lengthy speech on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when she addressed the pro-business group Association for a Better New York. Her ideas would cost about $20 billion, she said.
She indicated she would use the Council’s authority to force Con Edison and other state-run utilities to put certain power lines underground to prevent major outages in future storms, though her staff later said it was unclear which lines would be included in the proposal.
Mayor Bloomberg, who would have to approve such a bill, said “I don’t know where the money would come from – buried wires are a very expensive thing.”
Quinn is also pressing Mayor Bloomberg and the Army Corps of Engineers to study whether to build storm surge barriers to protect flood-prone areas, like the Rockaways and sections of Staten Island.
“Clearly we need to strengthen our infrastructure to prepare us for the effects of climate change, particularly as we rebuild in areas devastated by Sandy,” she said.
Bloomberg later replied, “It would take billions and billions of dollars. … You’d be doing it from the Florida Keys to the Northern edge of Maine. And building a barrier along the whole Atlantic Coast is not something even science could handle, much less the finances of our government.”
Meanwhile the City Council yesterday approved the $500 million budget modification to allocate funds for emergency repairs to schools and hospitals in the wake of Sandy.