The City Council of Petaluma, California this week unanimously moved this week to ban new gas stations, and existing stations will not be allowed to add new gas pumps – but they can add electric chargers. The council must approve the ban during a second reading to make it official.
To be clear, the existing gas stations are not being closed in Petaluma. It turns out that no new ones will be built, because there are enough – one to five minutes drive from all residential areas of the city, in fact, like the Santa Rosa Press Democrat he writes. The plan is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and the Municipality of Petaluma, with a population of around 60,000 inhabitants, considers that the 16 existing gas stations are sufficient.
Councilor D’Lynda Fischer, who introduced the measure, said:
The goal here is to stop using fossil fuels and make it as easy as possible.
Now, we have existing fossil fuel stations, and what we want them to do is add [electric vehicle] chargers and create another fuel source that people can use.
Existing gas stations are being encouraged to add electric vehicle chargers, and city leaders will also plan for more public EV charging infrastructure. The city launched “Climate Ready Petaluma 2030”, a plan to “achieve carbon neutrality of greenhouse gases for the city of Petaluma by 2030”. It was adopted last month.
Petaluma was supported by the environmental group Stand.earth, which runs a program called Safe Cities, described as “a growing movement of neighbors, local groups and elected officials eliminating fossil fuels and accelerating clean energy solutions”.
Matt Krogh, the director of SAFE Cities, said about Petaluma [via Axios]:
In fact, it is political bravery to be the first.
Electrek’s Take
Petaluma is the first seed planted and many will follow and germinate, first in California and then in other US states, such as Washington. For example, the Coalition Opposite New Gas Stations (CONGAS) is working to ban gas stations in Sonoma County, California, and its nine cities.
Just as the world is moving away from coal and other fossil fuels towards green energy, so towns and cities will follow in Petaluma’s footsteps, deciding that they have enough gas stations as the number of EVs goes up and ICE cars go down. The number of refueling stations will multiply and the number of gas stations will decrease.
To be clear, environmental groups are not removing gas stations; they’re saying that we don’t need it anymore. And they are right. There are many. To combat “reach anxiety”, more charging stations need to be created and more people will be encouraged to adopt electric cars.
Photo: Petaluma Museum
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