ALBANY, N.Y. - Hess Corp. has launched an aggressive fight against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo??s proposal to require gasoline stations to have generators, the Daily News reports. The fuel giant is pushing to have the plan struck from the budget proposal.

The governor??s budget would require gasoline stations within a half mile of emergency routes to be rewired for generators, and would give those stations $10,000 in grants for the work. While many N.Y. Hess stations have generators, a source close to state gasoline retailers said the company was concerned about the price. "Hess is opposed to it because it would be so costly," the source said.

Many New York City and suburban gasoline retailers are in favor of the governor??s plan, but upstate convenience store owners and operators are opposed to it, saying the grants would not be enough to do the work required under the proposed regulations.

A backgrounder on how Hurricane Sandy affected the fuels market ?" and a look at possible solutions to avoid future problems (hint: not generators) ?" was published as part of the 2013 NACS Retail Fuels Report.

It notes, "(T)o mandate generators at stores would not have helped with Sandy, given the widespread upstream problems. If power is out at the store, it is likely that the nearby upstream operations are also without power. No amount of power at the retail station would expedite the delivery of fuel if these systems are not operable."