No New Gas Stations in Northern California Cities

From today’s Los Angeles Times: California cities ban new gas stations

Without realizing they were starting a movement in green energy policy, Petaluma leaders did just that when they questioned the approval process for a new gas station — eventually halting its development and others in the future.

Since Petaluma’s decision, four other cities in the Bay Area have followed suit, and now leaders in California’s most car-centric metropolis are hoping to bring the climate-conscious policy to Southern California.

It opens a new front in California’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and is generating opposition from the fuel industry, which argues consumers would suffer.

This is the argument that is commonly used by the right-wing re: California and its progressive values: “Consumers suffer. It’s a hellacious place to live.”

Seriously?   Being forced to fill up at presently existing gas stations makes life miserable?

In any case, leave it to California to be the locus of such legislation.  Placing a limit on the number of gas stations may sound trivial, but little things add up quickly.