Sonoma County climate agency seeks end to new gas stations, addition of thousands of charging sites
Sonoma County’s climate planning agency has voted to back local bans on new fueling stations, touting it as a way to help meet county goals as part of a recently adopted county strategy to zero out local emissions of greenhouse gases by 2030.
The board of the Regional Climate Protection Authority voted unanimously Sept. 13 to recommend the county and the other local jurisdictions stop accepting applications for new gas stations or expansion of existing ones, but not halt processing of applications already in progress at the time a ban is adopted.
That move was part of the second of five objectives in the Sonoma Climate Mobilization Strategy that the board adopted in March to achieve “carbon neutrality” in the next nine years. That objective is to create local government ordinances that make it easier to get permits for electric vehicle charging stations and harder to get permits for gas stations.
That would be necessary to meet Sonoma County’s 2017 goal to cut local emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2030 and increase carbon sequestration to absorb the rest to reach emissions neutrality, agency officials said. Of county emissions, 60% is tied to transportation.
These local actions parallel action by California and federal governments to phase out internal combustion engines and phase in electric vehicles.
“I noticed we're starting out with the two biggest cities in Sonoma County as well as a bunch of the smaller cities in Sonoma County,” said Mark Landman, a Cotati City Council member and agency board member, during the meeting. “So I think that's a good thing. That tells me this is an interest and an item that works across widely different communities.”
Sebastopol, Santa Rosa and Cotati currently are working toward their own actions, according to the climate agency.
Petaluma in March adopted the nation's first ban on new gas stations, touching off a debate across the country on the future of energy, the Business Journal reported.
In Marin County, Novato City Council in early March after a contentious hearing on a proposed 14-pump gas station at the Costco Wholesale store, voted 4-1, with Councilwoman Amy Peele opposed, to approve it, but that came after the retailer agreed to install 10 electric vehicle charging stations, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
In Napa County, American Canyon plans to continue studying this fall whether it will pursue a ban on new gas stations, according to the Napa Valley Register.
Woody Hastings, part of the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations, told the Sonoma County climate agency board that he agreed with the amended resolution, so it would call for a halt only to new gas station applications.
“I do believe that it's only fair that the folks that have gone by the existing rules and have submitted applications under the existing rules — they're in the pipeline — that this this resolution should not impact them,” Hastings said.
Sonoma County currently has 138 retail fuel stations, mostly concentrated on major roadways, according to California Office of Emergency Services data the climate agency compiled.
By contrast, the county only has about 1,100 public charging stations, according to an agency staff report.
On a state level, the California Air Resources Board in mid-2020 adopted a rule requiring truck manufacturers to transition from diesel trucks and vans to electric zero-emission trucks beginning in 2024. By 2045, every new truck sold in California will be zero-emission.
And a year ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that set a 2035 deadline for all new vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission.
In August of this year, President Joe Biden issued an executive order setting a goal that half of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
