Cities Are Starting To Ban New Gas Stations

Petaluma, California, has voted to outlaw new gas stations, the first of what climate activists hope will be numerous cities and counties to do so. From a report: The movement aims to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles.
"This is not a ban on the existing gas stations, which are providing all the gas currently needed," Matt Krogh, U.S. oil and gas campaign director for the environmental group Stand.earth, tells Axios. "The problem with allowing new gas stations is we don't really need them and they're putting existing gas stations out of business." In Petaluma -- where neighborhood opposition to a new Safeway gas station prompted years of litigation -- the council voted unanimously last week to move forward with a permanent ban on new stations; a final vote will happen Monday.

Existing stations won't be allowed to add new gas pumps, though they're encouraged to build electric charging bays.
"The city of roughly 60,000 people is host to 16 operational gas stations, and city staff concluded there are multiple stations located within a 5-minute drive of every planned or existing residence within city limits," per the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The city councilor who introduced the measure, D'Lynda Fischer, is quoted as saying: "The goal here is to move away from fossil fuels and to make it as easy as possible to do that."

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